Who We Are
St. Paul Self Help Group was registered and established in the year 2000 as an agent of socio promotion registered trustees (SPRT) –Archdiocese of Nairobi, under Caritas Nairobi Economic Empowerment Programme to carry out socio- economic development with the aim of empowering its members economically.
Caritas Nairobi is the social and aid development agency of the Archdiocese of Nairobi. Refer https://www.caritasnairobi.org/economic-empowerment/
Over time, the self-help group membership has grown to over 1000 members as of January 2022. The members have created a savings pool of above US$1.1 million (Ksh. 122 million) from which they can borrow loans at very minimal interest rates and friendly terms to meet their economic needs. Excess funds are invested in securities through Caritas Nairobi to maximize members distributable surplus on savings.
Lending to members is secured by their savings and by other member’s savings through guarantorship. To strengthen the guarantorship system, the Self-Help Group organizes physical networking forums and has set up WhatsApp groups that enhance the social fabric amongst members.
St. Paul Self Help Group exists to empower its members through savings mobilization, provision of loans, prudently investing excess funds and facilitating member networks and capacity building.
Strategic Goals
The Self – Help Group exists to empower our members: to achieve this, the group offers financial solutions to provide the right tools needed to fulfil the members’ socio-economic aspirations. In furtherance of our mission, the Self–Help Group is assuming a greater role as a convenor – bring the membership together to educate and inform, network, and to provide a marketplace platform for members to engage in commerce.
The group seeks to achieve the following goals and results by the end of 2023.
Saving mobilization – Grow savings by 20% every year achieving total members savings of Ksh. 177 million by year 2023.
Membership growth – Grow member numbers by 20% every year to achieve a membership of 1432 by year 2023.
Member’s socio – economic empowerment – Deliver annual surplus on savings. Yield to members year on year.
Achieve a balanced investment portfolio of money saved: 50% loans to members and 50% securities investments through Caritas Nairobi.
ICT – Upgrade the current ICT system to enable members access mobile loans through an app and develop a website with a portal for member logins.
Under our strategic plan implementation framework 2021 – 2023, we aim to target four performance outcomes.
- Financial performance – Sustain our mission financially.
- Member & stakeholder focus – Focus on service to members and stakeholders.
- Rigorous internal processes – Come up with tools and processed to ensure efficient service delivery, innovation, and learning.
- Strong organization capacity – Develop better organization values, governance, and systems to meet our strategic goals.