Welfare isn’t all just about handouts. In an effort to equip the poor to have a chance at social mobility, Selangor launched two micro-credit schemes in March 2010 to eradicate poverty, namely MiMBAR and SKIMSEL. The results have gone beyond expectations.

MiMBAR

One of the MES programmes, this interest-free micro-credit scheme is specifically targeted at the urban poor in their endeavours to get into small-scale businesses. The scheme has the stated aim of providing “assistance to work”, in other words getting the poor off welfare and unto workfare.

In MiMBAR, two forms of assistance are provided for the successful applicants. In the micro-credit assistance portion, cash loans that range from RM 1000 to RM 5000 are provided. The repayment duration is monthly over a twelve months period.

In addition, MiMBAR also provides equipment and product assistance to the borrowers. Equipment assistance includes such things as burger kiosks, ice-blender kiosks, goat milk products, canopies, gau mineral water etc. This serves as an alternative to cash loans for those looking to expand their businesses.

As of March 2012 more than 2600 applicants have received loans from the scheme. A total of RM 5.3 million has been disbursed in cash and equipment forms.

SKIMSEL

A similar scheme to MiMBAR, SKIMSEL is catered for the rural poor. SKIMSEL aims to provide micro-credit loans, encouraging saving habits and human development. Categories of the product offerings include business, miscellaneous and education financing, compulsory savings and civil servant financing

The applicant is able to borrow without collateral and guarantor or fear of legal action. The loans comes in three increasing amount packages – Ehsan (2000-3000), AMAN (3001- 5000) and MAKMUR (5001-20000).

Repayment period is weekly over a duration that ranges from 12 weeks to 100 weeks, depending on the loan amount. The borrowers are required to attend a three-day training before commencing loans disbursement and also subsequently attend weekly meetings to report on their business progress.

As of March 2012, more than 5000 applicants have applied for the loans. Some of the business loan applicants have reached the Makmur brackets. A total of RM 20 million has been disbursed thus far.

Selangor’s efforts have compared favourably with similar schemes by the federal government, 1 AZAM Niaga dan Khidmat. These programmes are estimated to have around 4000 successful applicants in 2011 for the whole country.

Another fact is that most of the successful applicants for both Selangor’s micro-credit schemes are women. -The Rocket