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Success Story

Photo: USAID

SUMI is striving to ensure that 50 percent of all lending goes to women. "Microfinance is dynamic and SUMI will adapt to change as it grows. I envision that SUMI, in the future, will be a bank." -Edward Lokule, SUMI Managing Director

Sudan Microfinance Institution's objective is to offer financial services on a self-sustaining yet efficient basis to microentrepreneurs living in southern Sudan, with emphasis on the agriculture sector, women, returned refugees, and internally displaced persons.

Rose Anite is a 26-year-old woman who sells dried fish at the open market in Yei. She began her business in 2000 with the equivalent of $75. She buys the fish twice a month in Uganda near the river Nile at a place called Panyamur, but the trip takes about seven days due to poor roads and infrastructure.

Given the lack of infrastructure, few businesses, no legal or regulatory framework, and a culture of heavy depend-ence on relief aid brought on by a quarter century of war, few thought a microfinance institution could be developed. When the operations and logistics manager first assessed the potential of South Sudan for such an initiative, he re-ported hearing, "The Sudanese will run away with your money." Despite initial skepticism, however, a successful microfinance institution, governed by a local board of di-rectors, has been built from scratch.

Created with USAID support in 2003, the Sudan Microfinance Institution (SUMI) is performing above inter-national standards and growing. Through solidarity groups and salary loans in three southern Sudan branches, the total value of loans disbursed by February 2005 was close to a half million dollars to more than 1,600 clients, above the targets set in their business plan. SUMI's repayment rate is over 98 percent with a portfolio-at-risk rate of less than 6 percent.

Rose joined SUMI so that she could increase her capital. She has taken a loan equivalent to $100, which allows her to now buy in larger bulk and thus increases the profitabil-ity of each buying trip to Uganda. Like the other four members of her borrower group, Rose is servicing her loan on time and looks forward to paying it off so that she can access a larger loan next time.

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