Kibwezi
| Kibwezi | |
|---|---|
 Kibwezi
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| Coordinates: 2°25′S 37°58′E / 2.42°S 37.97°E | |
| Country | Kenya |
| County | Makueni County |
| Time zone | EAT (UTC+3) |
Kibwezi is a town in Makueni County, Kenya.
Kibwezi town is the headquarters of Kibwezi division, one of 15 administrative divisions in Makueni County. The division has a population of 80,236, of whom 4,695 are classified urban. The division has four locations: Kikumbulyu, Kinyambu, Masongaleni and Utithi. Kibwezi town is located within Kikumbulyu location.
Kibwezi is also named for Kibwezi Constituency, the local electoral constituency. Kibwezi town does not seat a local authority but is part of Makueni County Council.
The largest school is the Kibwezi Educational Centre, a partnership between the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) and Burke Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). It contains a polytechnic offering two-year vocational programs in carpentry, masonry, welding, and tailoring. There is also a secretarial department which requires students to have graduated from secondary school. A primary school and preschool are for grades one though eight. Scholarships are available for need based students such as orphans. There are around thirty children in the greater Kibwezi area supported and sometimes under scholarship for educational costs. Students from very needy families benefit from the government disbursed bursaries.
There are two banks and two credit unions in town. The largest bank is the Kenyan Commercial Bank. The Largest Credit Union is the Sidian Bank.
One Microfinance program, run by Empowering the Poor in Development(EPID) - Kenya partnered with the United States-based, 501(c)(3) non-profit, The Walking with Africans Foundation (WAF) focuses on organizing and providing initial funding to Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA) groups. EPID and WAF jointly oversee 5 ROSCA groups totaling 120 members in the greater Kibwezi area. The program provides initial loans without collateral, allowing members of peer groups the opportunity to co-guarantee repayment of loans and assume management of the revolving fund. The small interest collected from loans is reinvested into lending to more participants. To qualify and remain in the program, participants must meet strict monitoring criteria and pay back the original loans through small weekly repayments and contributions to joint savings. Qualified participants who own small businesses or who seek to establish small business enterprises are extended loans on a short-term repayment cycle (3 to 6 months). WAF was founded by James Munthali, a retired economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other members of Burke Presbyterian Church in the suburbs of Washington D.C., United States of America.
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