Informal Microfinance Service Delivery Approaches and their implication for Women Economic Empowerment: Case of SILC and VICOBA Programs in Tanzania

This study applied mixed research methods to assess the approaches used by savings and internal lending communities (SILC) and village community banks (VICOBA) in facilitating provision of microfinance services and their implication in empowering women. Semi-structured questionnaires, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were used to collect data. The study found that both SILC and VICOBA played a significant role in empowering women economically, through microcredits and dividends. It was particularly noted that, unlike SILC, VICOBA’s membership composition, saving attitude, lending procedures, sources of income, borrowing conditions, loans utilization approaches, dividend provision conditions, and loan recovery measures resulted into more profit generation, widening groups lending capacity, increasing membership for low-income earners, and building entrepreneurial and business skills to new members. These culminated into directly enabling more members to access financial services and empower not only their members but also the community at large.