Launched in September 2013 through the Legal Notice No. 21 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2014. Uwezo Fund is a vision 2030 flagship program, aimed at enabling Women, Youth, and Persons with disability access finances to promote business and enterprises at a constituency level.
Uwezo Fund provides mentorship opportunities to its
beneficiaries thus enabling them to take advantage of the 30% government
procurement preference via its Capacity Building Programme.
The Fund, therefore, is an avenue for incubating
enterprises, catalyzing innovation, promoting industry, creating employment,
and growing the economy.
The Fund is managed by an oversight board at the national
level and a Constituency Uwezo Fund Committee (CUFCs) at the constituency level
government representatives and members of various Wards.
What are the Objectives of Uwezo Fund?
The Funds objectives are to
- Expand
access to finances in the promotion of youth and women businesses and
enterprises at the constituency level.
- Generate
and promote self- employment for the youth and women and lastly to
- Model
an alternative finance framework in funding community is driven
development.
Eligibility Criteria for Uwezo Fund Applicants.
Applicants shall qualify for Fund loan application if
For a group
- It has
to be registered with the Registrar of Societies, the department of social
services, or Cooperatives.
- Must
have members aged between 18 and 35 years whereas the women’s groups shall
be made up of women aged 18 years and above?
- Is
based and operational at the constituency it seeks to make an application
for consideration.
- Operates
a table banking structure or any other group fund structure where members
make monthly contributions according to the groups’ internal rules.
- Have
evidence of monthly contributions
- Hold a
bank account in the name of the group.
For an institution
- the
Institution should be a registered entity and should have listed youth and
women groups within it.
How to apply for Uwezo Fund
To apply for Uwezo fund,
- Ensure
that you meet the eligibility criteria stated above
- Fill
in an application form (available at the Constituency Uwezo Fund Management
Committee office).
- Submit
the application together with the relevant documents to the Constituency
Uwezo Fund Management Committee office. and await notification from the
committee.
Eligible Amount
For administration of the Fund
Eligible qualifying amounts for a group shall be a minimum
Ksh 50,000 and a maximum of Ksh 500,000 at any one time. The following
criteria are used to determine the total amount that a group is eligible to
receive
- The
Length of time the group has been in existence
- Total
amount contributed by the group
- Current
status of contribution and
- The
proposed business plan for the loan applied
Note: The eligible amount shall be three times the group
savings BUT it shall not be
- Below
Kshs. 50,000 (Minimum).
- More
than the amount applied for in the application form and
- More
than Kshs. 500,000 (Maximum).
Uwezo Fund Contact Details
Lonrho House, 16th Floor, Standard St.
P. O. Box 42009 – 00100, Nairobi
Call: +254 020 2210557
info@uwezo.go.ke
ceo@uwezo.go.ke
complaints@uwezo.go.ke
programmes@uwezo.go.ke
hr@uwezo.go.ke
https://www.uwezo.go.ke