The BOMA Project is a U.S. nonprofit and Kenyan NGO that helps ultra-poor women in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) of Africa achieve financial inclusion and self-sufficiency. BOMA works with extremely poor women of rural pastoralist communities in Northern Kenya, who are among the poorest people in the world. The BOMA Project implements a technology-driven, gender-focused poverty graduation program called the Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP) to help lift ultra-poor women of the African drylands out of extreme poverty and build their resiliency to future shocks. Through REAP’s two-year long sequenced interventions, enrolled women receive a cash grant to launch their own enterprises as three-women business groups to support themselves and their families. They also receive financial and life-skills training, covering topics such as family planning and the importance of girls’ education; sustained mentoring; and a mobile phone. These mobile phones give each woman access M-PESA, a Kenyan mobile money service that allows users to electronically send, deposit, and withdraw money. Digitally connecting women to phones, M-PESA accounts, and other digital financial services (DFS) is crucial to helping them break the intergenerational cycle of extreme poverty, gain confidence and achieve gender equality. After 6 months, these women join and contribute to savings associations where they can access savings and loans to cope with drought and cover family expenses. Mentors continue to provide training sessions and mentoring for the remaining 18 months of the program.

https://bomaproject.org

• Africa

• Women
• The poor
• Remote and rural communities

The BOMA Project implements a technology-driven, gender-focused poverty graduation program called the Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP) to help lift ultra-poor women of the African drylands out of extreme poverty and build their resiliency to future shocks.