Impact
As a development organisation, Kuyasa measures its success through our positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of our clients. The Department of Housing states that 2.5 million subsidy housing units were constructed for 
households earning less than R3 500. Of these, only 100 000 units have been linked to formal credit provided by the banking system. This has led to a “gap” arising in the housing market, as the product delivered by the government subsidy system is not being consolidated by homeowners in order to reach property values regarded as ‘bondable’ by the formal market. We see part of our role in enabling people to benefit from the capital assets they own and encourage them to participate in the property market. A government subsidy funded home in the Western Cape is valued at R50,000 and is typically 23m squared - 36m squared. After investing their savings of approximately R2,800 and 2 Kuyasa loans (R12,000 and R15,000) the homes of Kuyasa clients are on average 60m squared and are valued at R150,000 - R250,000!
Individual Empowerment
Kuyasa’s experience has been 
that clients experience significant increase in their self confidence as they, sometimes for the first time, contract formally for debt, negotiate with building material suppliers and builders and manage the construction of their own home improvements. This, coupled with the increase in status that comes with having improved the quality of their homes, leads to an overall sense of greater well-being, with knock on effects in education, health and general family stability. Clients taking loans also have the opportunity to improve their credit record, through the process of formal debt.
Community Empowerment
Savings makes up a significant portion of the capital that is used to improve homes. These savings are mobilised through collective or individual savings, creating value not only though capital investment but through a sense of belonging and provides an invaluable source of information and peer support for activities beyond housing. By providing credit, Kuyasa establishes credit profiles for communities that would previously been largely excluded from formal finance and helps to builds a credit rating for a community as a whole.
Social Value Add
The Kuyasa Fund further adds significant social value to the community at large. These initiatives include:
- Client Financial Literacy Education -- During each phase of our interaction with our clients we provide informal one on one financial literacy training.
- Kuyasa clients have overwhelmingly reported improvements in the intangible aspects of their quality of life. Both men and women agreed that the strain of inadequate housing affected household relations and that while the management of credit brought its own stresses, the benefits of suitable housing outweighed these.
- Clients reported greater self- esteem; improved relations between partners as well as with families; a strong sense of well-being associated with the dignity of having, often for the first time during their tenure in Cape Town, a formal house; and increased interest in their wider communities.
- The majority of clients list safety from fires as a key benefit of their brick house. Fires frequently sweep through Cape Town’s densely built informal settlements. Shacks made of flammable materials, as well as lack of access for emergency vehicles, means that these fires often destroy large numbers of homes before they can be brought under control, and subsidy homes with shack extensions are at greater risk than those with brick extensions.
- There is greater security from crime in a brick house than in a shack. Clients frequently cite security as a key benefit of formal housing, and second or subsequent loans are often used to improve house security.
- Income generation possibilities are improved through access to formal housing. Many clients who are listed as self-employed are vendors or small spaza shop owners. Improvements to their houses often include building a room specifically for use in selling, thus increasing their income-generating potential.
- Job creation. New loan officers are drawn from the communities served. All our loans officers have no or limited previous experience within a formal employment environment.
Environmental Impact
Among the 7.5 million South Africans who do not have access to formal dwellings, more than half live in peri-urban areas . While ESKOM struggles to meet the increasing demands posed by rural exodus and urbanization through sizeable increases in electricity tariffs and the refurbishment of coal-powered electric plants, the promotion of non-polluting energy solutions for sustainable development in low-income, high-density areas becomes an increasingly relevant goal. The importance of this task takes on a further dimension when one takes into account the proven link between reliable access to energy and the development of local economic activity and micro enterprises.
The Kuyasa Fund, along with PlaNet Finance, Kuyasa CDM, Citi Foundation and New Business Finance are piloting a project to support the development of energy efficient and renewable energy solutions for lower income households through Microfinance and Micro-franchising.
