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{
    "id": 235966,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/235966/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 283,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for allowing me to contribute to this very important Bill. We have been crying here, over and over again, that we need a Microfinance Bill to help the management of microfinance and micro activities in the country. Only the other day, we saw that the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He is a man who started a microfinance bank with US$500, which has grown into a phenomenal success, helping millions of people in Bangladesh. This is a Bill that is so critical to the micro-economic activities in the country that we need to pass it as quickly as possible. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have only a few things that I would want to bring to the attention of the Minister so that when we come to the Committee Stage, perhaps he can address them. I have not seen a Microfinance Act anywhere else before, but I do not know whether we are providing for over-regulation of an otherwise informal activity. I hope the Minister, in the rules that will subsequently be made under the Act, can limit some of the clutches that the Central Bank of November 8, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3525 Kenya may have on these very critical institutions, because these are institutions that are operating in Kacheliba, Sirisia and everywhere, and they should not be over-regulated like banks which handle billions of shillings. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having given you an example of the Gramin Bank guru who started a microfinance activity with US$500, I want to urge the Minister also to relax the requirement under the schedule on minimum capital requirements. This is because if we are talking of microfinance to help the poor manage the economy, then requiring them to have Kshs60 million or even Kshs20 million on the lower side, is a bit too heavy. We are thinking of a situation where a good cane farmer in Bungoma, who earns Kshs1 million in one year, can start an activity like that and grow. I think all the Minister needs to do is to make sure that the rules that govern the activities are watertight to beat fraud because we have all seen cases where people start collecting money from the public, take it and disappear. It is good that this is provided for. You remember the bad old cases of rural-urban banks which were set up purely for purposes of fraud and nothing else, and they fleeced people and disappeared. I think I would want to urge the Minister to look at that."
}