SOCIAL MICROFINANCING PROGRAM
Learning Squared Liberia’s social microfinance program is designed to empower women by providing them with the necessary skills and resources to start and grow their own businesses. By establishing village loan structures managed by women entrepreneurs, the program aims to create a sustainable system that can help alleviate poverty and increase income levels, not only for individual participants but also for their families and communities.
Program Structure
Since the inception of our social microfinance program in 2019, LSL has trained and supported over 500 women with loans. Learning Squared Liberia believes that increasing financial inclusion and teaching financial literacy empowers underserved women to take control of their lives, livelihoods, and children’s education. Learning Squared's social microfinance program aims to help women create and build assets to increase their income, improve their lives, and support their communities.
Our program helped establish village loan groups so that they can engage in income-generating activities and use their income to improve household living conditions for themselves and their families. We encourage women to kick-start their entrepreneurial journey or scale existing businesses by providing loans. Our commitment doesn't stop there; we also offer scholarship opportunities to the children of these empowered women. Through this initiative, we're creating a ripple effect of economic development and nurturing the next generation of educated citizens.
We recruit a group of 15-25 women from a community after undergoing a 4-day training and organized them into a loan group. Then facilitate and monitor their microloans that start at $50 during a 12–18-week program that includes relevant business and money management skills. During those 12-18 weeks, our participants build support systems in their communities by meeting once a week. More than 90% of our beneficiaries are women who are already small-scale business owners, such as petty traders, smallholder farmers, food processors, local transporters, artisans, and single mothers. Our primary target group is entrepreneurial women living in rural communities. (petty traders, smallholder farmers, food processors, local transporters, artisans, and single mothers), mainly women and girls. Learning Squared Liberia developed a unique community economic model to transition women into established village loan entrepreneurs within 12 or 24 months. Loan funds are recycled so that the program becomes self-sustaining. Our grassroots approach instantly creates community structure and financial autonomy. Our program is considered one of the most promising concepts to lift women out of community poverty. The structural format is 100% self-sufficient. Learning Squared Liberia and its local partners have built a network of entrepreneurs.
