Computers ease commerce in Senegal
Digital Freedom Initiative pilot brings technology to market

Facoumba Gueye (left), a volunteer with the USAID-sponsored DFI activity near Sandaga Market in Dakar, explains how information technology can help clothing merchant Omar Fall increase efficiency and profits. Photo by R. Nyberg, USAID

Facoumba Guèye works her way through the colorfully crowded streets surrounding Dakar’s bustling Sandaga Market. Dodging into shops, she waves to merchants who have seen her often as she drums up support for technology and the Internet. As a volunteer with USAID-supported activities of the Digital Freedom Initiative (DFI), a U.S. Presidential program, her task is to show shop owners how computers and the Internet can increase efficiency and sales.

She encourages merchants to drop by Cyber Louma, a USAID-supported Internet café just around the corner that provides training for entrepreneurs – everything from spreadsheets to sourcing new markets or suppliers online. It is becoming a popular place to do business.

“I use the Internet at Cyber Louma,” said Abdoul Aziz Fall, a hardware and construction material wholesaler. His latest quest was for less expensive fans from Dubai. Finding products online to improve his business prospects has broadened his horizons. “Cyber Louma was my first contact with a computer. I am illiterate in these things, and the local volunteer helped me to open an email account and find information on the Internet.”

Mamadou Guèye, a tile trader who imports his wares from Italy, also got his first exposure to computers at Cyber Louma. He is convinced of the power of computers to save time and improve efficiency. “I’m now planning to arrange a space in the shop to build an office and buy a computer to better manage my business,” he said.

DFI’s reach extends far beyond this market street, however. In 2005, 72 people found jobs through DFI’s efforts and 360 enterprises benefited from training provided by the program. Using a robust corps of 72 Senegalese, nine Peace Corps and 21 other international volunteers, DFI has been able to train 302 entrepreneurs nationwide to better manage their IT businesses and create jobs. They have also developed an e-learning platform for a private university and helped computerize two doctor’s offices.

DFI is an alliance through which the U.S. Government and leading U.S. companies work together to promote economic growth for entrepreneurs and small businesses in developing countries through information and communications technologies. Announced in March 2003 and piloted in Senegal, DFI is now active in Indonesia, Jordan, and Peru, and will be expanded to an additional 16 countries by 2008.