Mastercard Foundation sponsors financial literacy programs in Kibera slum » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 12-More than 750,000 residents of Kibera slum in Nairobi are set to receive financial training to enable them spend and save wisely always.

The training to be carried out by the Greencard Mtaani in partnership with MasterCard Foundation will help the residents form savings groups and develop financial discipline.

Locals will also be encouraged to come up with business models which they will be assisted to implement.

The programme dubbed #ItsUpToUs also seeks to sensitize the community on the dangers and risks that have been brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and how to navigate through the period.

Greencard Mtaani founder Fredrick Juma says the training which is already ongoing and is set to conclude by January next year will go a long way in improving the livelihoods of the residents.

“We are also having training,  Village Saving and Loans Associations (VSLA), where  the plan is to  train 160 people from 16 villages whereby we are training 10 people from every village,” Juma said.

“We are trying to give resilience and recovery to the people,” he added.

With the COVID-19 pandemic having placed a heavy burden on many Kenyans economically, Juma noted that the Mastercard partnership will roll out other projects that will help alleviate the living conditions of the residents in the slum.

“We are also setting up handwashing stations in all the wards in Kibra and its environs, we will have 2 stations per ward and this will be manned by Community Health Volunteers (CHV) who have been trained by AMREF and the Ministry of Health and  deployed to various remote areas to provide services,” said Juma.

Youth will also receive training on how to make soap and fabric softeners to support the local economy.