Triple Jump news - Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Revamping Yehu Microfinance in Kenya
January 2011 - Triple Jump Adivsory Services is in the process of revamping Yehu Microfinance Trust in Kenya. Yehu is now on the right path to execute it’s mission “to empower the rural entrepreneurs through enhanced accessibility to sustainable financial services’’.
The Yehu Micro Finance Trust started in 1996 as a project of Choice Humanitarian, an American Charitable organization with its Kenyan programme being run from the Kenyan Coastal City of Mombasa. Yehu provides micro finance services to the deep rural poor, one of the most underserved populations in coastal Kenya. "Yehu" means "ours" in the mijikenda language of the main community in the Kenyan coast. From the beginning, Yehu was founded with a strong sense of community ownership and participation. After a steady growth, the MFI has achieved profitability and operational self-sufficiency and is gearing towards exponential growth.
However, Yehu has, in the last three years, stagnated and could not attract much supporter/funding beyond its founders. Its portfolio didn't grow and its efficiency was poorly designed. It remained in the shadow of Choice Humanitarian and had generally adopted the NGO branding. With conservative expansion rates and performance not guided by best practice, progress stalled and staff was de-motivated. Furthermore, the entry of Nairobi based MFIs into Yehu’s traditional market also caused client attrition and dropouts soured. Yehu’s future became uncertain and staff started leaving in droves.
Being cognizant of the above, the Board and founders intervened to give Yehu a new beginning. They began to build a new leadership and management that would transform Yehu to a best practice MFI and drive it into exponential growth path. Therefore a new CEO was recruited in late 2008 with a mandate to build a new management structure and strategic direction for Yehu. But how does a new CEO with a committed and passionate board, albeit weak, a nascent and forming audit function, weak funding base and an understaffed and undertrained finance team revamp Yehu?
In April 2010, working in partnership with Yehu, Triple Jump Advisory Services undertook a thorough diagnostic assessment of Yehu, with a view of understanding the underlying issues and the best solutions to addressing them. Working hand in hand with Yehu, key issues of concern in Governance, Internal Audit and Controls and Finance were highlighted, discussed and agreed upon.
Triple Jump Advisory Services then assigned an expert consultant in the areas identified, who spent time with the Yehu team in the affected areas in mentoring, training, discussing and working with staff and board members in the challenging areas. As a result of these consulting and advising efforts, by the end of Dec 2010,
a) The governance function of Yehu had been revamped through building the right board policies, board committees and functions. Board effectiveness was strengthened further through board recruitment, orientation, training and evaluation.
b) An effective Audit Function in Yehu was developed by way of Audit Charter & plans, hand holding, audit plans as well as training the entire institution to appreciate Audit and risk aspects of business.
During the 1st quarter of 2011, Triple Jump Advisory Services will further support Yehu on the remaining challenges, which were identified as:
i) Building an effective Finance function that is able to fully support the growing business with efficient processes and reporting
ii) Developing an effective treasury function that attracts and ensures efficient investment while ensuring timely application/ allocation of financial resources.
Towards the end of 2011, Triple Jump Advisory Services will evaluate Yehu to gauge the impact, effectiveness and efficiency of the various services provided. With a Board that is aware of it’s mandate and able to guide the direction of Yehu, an internal audit and finance function that assures clients, investors and donors of prudence in its accounts, Yehu is on the right path to execute it’s mission “to empower the rural entrepreneurs through enhanced accessibility to sustainable financial services’’.
