Funding & Support
Revolving Funds
Women and youth need financial assistance with a wide range of options that are convenient, flexible, and reasonably priced. Their varying socio-economic circumstances require different financial products, including savings mobilization, short, medium and long term loans, cash transfers, and insurance.
When women and youth have access to sustainable financial services they are able to increase their income, build assets, and reduce their vulnerability to external shocks. Access to finance also allows poor households to move from everyday survival mode to planning for the future, investing in better nutrition, improving living conditions and asset ownership. Women who have better access to sustainable financial services are also able to improve their children’s health and education.
However, it is difficult for the economically marginalized to access sustainable financial services. To bridge this gap, TGT runs two revolving funds that provide financial support to women and youth for business expansion with the provision that, repayments of the loans are put back into the fund to support even more marginalized women and youth. Apart from loans, the funds also provide training on financial management. The two revolving funds are:
The Belkin Revolving Fund
The Belkin Revolving Fund was established in 2013 to address the needs of women and youth who are beneficiaries of the Zanzibar Horticulture Programme. The objective of the credit scheme is to strengthen the economic viability of women micro-businesses and income generation activities through provision of training on Good Agricultural Practises (GAP) and linking them to credit to help them expand their businesses.
The Belkin Fund carries a family name; Mr. Belkin was a close friend to the late Ibrahim Seushi and Mr. Laurence Cockcroft (both of whom were founders of TGT). Mr. Belkin left a will which instructed family, friends and well-wishers to donate money to TGT rather than sending flowers during his funeral. Funds collected were given to TGT to establish a revolving fund for women and youth in Zanzibar.
The TGT Revolving Fund
The TGT Revolving Fund started its operations in April 2017 with initial capital from the Ibrahim Sheusi Fund and Comic Relief. The fund was established to support women entrepreneurs in Dar es Salaam and the Coastal Region who graduated from our Tanzania Virtual Business Incubator Programme and needed financial support. The fund gives them access to loans for business expansion and general product enhancement that leads to profitability.
For the past 25 years, we have had the good fortune of receiving incredible financial support from our funders. We started with core funding from Gatsby Charitable Foundation and as others started to see the results we produced, we were able to partner with many others.
Our current programme funders are:
- Comic Relief and Cherie Blair Foundation who fund the Tanzania Virtual Business Incubator Programme in Dar es Salaam and Kibaha.
- DANIDA which supports the Informal Economy Sector Support Programme in greater Dar es Salaam.
Our past programmefunders have included:
- AIDOS (Italian Association for Women in Development)
- Alice Spencer
- The Belkin family
- Conservation Agriculture Regional Programme (CARP)
- Ford Foundation
- Gatsby Charitable Foundation of UK
- Kilimo Trust
- McKnight Foundation
- UK’s Department for International Development (DFID)
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
- World Bank
We thank all our partners and look forward to stronger and deeper collaborations in the future.
We continue to seek further funding from agencies and institutions that share our drive of helping Tanzanian SMEs and farmers transform into globally competitive enterprises.
The support and close collaboration of various partners inside and outside Tanzania has made it possible for us to run successful programmes. Our implementing partners have included:
- AMKA Trust
- Habitat for Humanity
- International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications (ISAAA)
- Kinondoni Municipal Council
- Mondi Forest of South Africa
- Presidential Trust Fund
- Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO)
- Tanzania Cotton Board
- Tanzania Food Processors Association (TAFOPA)
- Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI)
- Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB)
- Tanzania Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment
- Ubungo Municipal Council
- University of Dar es Salaam (College of Engineering and Technology; Entrepreneurship Centre)
- UWAWIMA (Umoja wa Wakulima wa Mbogamboga na Matunda)
- VIBINDO Society (Jumuiya ya wenye Viwandana na Biashara Ndogondogo)
- Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA)
- Zanzibar Association of Tourist Investors (ZATI)
TGT is widely recognized as a partner in creating a foundation for a thriving and robust private sector in Tanzania through our farmer and SME development programmes. We catalyse the growth of smallholder farmers and SMEs for the social and economic empowerment of women, families and communities.
Services related to private sector development are not readily available or affordable to poor people who are struggling to build their businesses. Focusing on women and youth, we play a vital role in addressing the needs of such marginalized groups, building their capacities and empowering them to create self-sufficient businesses.
We take a holistic approach to enabling SMEs and farmers in Tanzania to become more profitable. We believe that to grow their businesses, entrepreneurs and farmers need a combination of appropriate skills, resources and abilities as follows:
- Skills: Good technical skills for efficient and high-quality production; skills to standardize, brand and market their products; organizational and financial skills, management and leadership skills, as well as business registration and formalization.
- Resources: Access to finance, professional work premises, quality business development services and higher-value markets.
- Ability: Self-belief and commitment to grow their businesses in the direction they need to; and removal of gender-based social and economic obstacles that hinder productivity and growth.
All these are necessary to enable the farmers and small businesses to run their small enterprises efficiently and effectively; increase production quantity, quality and range, thereby achieving efficient and scalable production; increase their incomes; and move closer to the goal of becoming globally competitive enterprises.
We have established a model for developing micro–enterprises and smallholder farms into profitable businesses. Based on this model, we provide capacity building interventions throughout the production value chain. Smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs receive support from initial production to value addition, quality improvement and certification, trade and marketing, as well as business and human resources management. This thorough support enables programme participants to gain vital knowledge that transforms the way they operate, leading to their increased economic output.
Through innovative partnerships with donors and funders, TGT has helped the economically marginalized to tackle barriers that inhibit their ability to create wealth.
For 25 years we have been a catalyst of growth for small and medium enterprises, emerging entrepreneurs, and farming cooperatives. We have nurtured the development of various entities, many of whom today are thriving on their own.
Some of the impacts that we have had on the communities we have worked with include:
- Incubated four entities that evolved into independent, self-sustaining legal bodies. These are Community Banks Association, Fahari Women’s Group, Hurunzi Women’s Group, and the Forestry Development Trust
- Created Fanikiwa Microfinance Company which provides affordable loans to SMEs
- Built the capacities of over 6,000 women and youth and increased their ability to create and run successful enterprises that are improving the livelihoods of their families and their communities in general
- Strengthened SMEs by helping different groups to come together and create associations like the Mwanga Association of Small Producers (UWAMWA), Mtwara Small Enterprise Development Association (MSEDA), and Zanzibar Association of Small Scale Producers (UWAZI)
- Helped to introduce two textiles degrees at the University of Dar es Salaam as well as a textile foundation course for the Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA)
- Assisted the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to establish a Textile Development Unit for spearheading the development of the textile sector in Tanzania
- Helped to introduce tissue culture technology and clonal forestry biotechnology in Tanzania which is now commercially available in the country
- Assisted in the creation of Mwanga Community Bank, Meru Community Bank, Tandahimba Community Bank and Njombe Community Bank.
Our Partners
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Tanzania Growth Trust (formerly Tanzania Gatsby Trust – TGT) is a non-profit organization registered and operating in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar since 1992.
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