Saving for Senegal’s future :
Women find economic freedom in microfinance

Isseu Sambe discusses her cloth business with André Youm at her market stall in Tivaoune, Senegal. Photo: K. Cobos, CRS

For far too long, Senegalese cloth merchant Isseu Sambe saw her slim profits slip away as fast as they came in. Daily expenses quickly ate away earnings as she struggled to supplement her husband’s meager pension so that they could provide for their five children and six orphaned children from the extended family.

She never imagined she would save up over $800 – until she learned about USAID-supported microfinance.

Isseu, 51, has been selling colorful, imported African cloth for eight years. In 2002, she tried out the Keur Khaly Village Bank in Tivaoune, operated by CAURIE-MF (Caisse Autonome pour le Renforcement des Initiatives Economiques par la Microfinance), and started saving a portion of her modest income.

She began with a $60 loan from CAURIE-MF and used the loan to purchase cloth in bulk to increase her profit margin. By the close of the first six-month cycle, Isseu not only paid back the loan but also managed to save $60 for herself.

Since then, she has progressively ratcheted up her loans and repayment so that by the end of the fourth year, she had qualified for a $1,000 loan and tucked away $860 in savings.

Supported by the USAID Matching Grant Program, CAURIE-MF emerged from an initiative led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Caritas Senegal, a local non-governmental organization, to transform existing village banking microfinance activities into a formal microfinance institution.

CAURIE-MF links credit with savings and seeks to assist poor women microentrepreneurs – typically traders, artisans, and farmers – who do not have access to financial services. Now operating through three branches nationwide, CAURIE-MF grew its loan portfolio to $2 million and captured over $1.2 million in savings by the end of 2006.

But real success is measured by the impact on the lives of the women that CAURIE-MF serves. The institution now reaches over 11,000 women through more than 200 village banks.

Women, like Isseu, are empowered by their savings. “Before, I never saved. Money was spent on small expenses,” says Isseu. “Now, I can save and spend on more important things.”

Since she started saving, Isseu has bought bedroom furniture and a refrigerator for her home. Currently she is working to build a new home on an old family plot.

“Without the assistance of USAID, our microfinance activities would have had to stop and the women would have returned to their prior state of poverty since they can not access credit through other financial institutions,” says André Youm, head of one of CAURIE-MF’s branches and the longest-serving member of the microfinance team.

CAURIE-MF is a key advocate of microfinance reform and enjoys national recognition as a leading, innovative microfinance institution. It plans to expand the range of its products and services to reach even more poor women with the same aspirations as Isseu.

Selling her cloth in the busy market, Isseu exudes the self-determination that credit and savings offer her and her fellow village bank members served by CAURIE-MF. “As women, we find freedom in being able to earn our livelihoods and build for a future.”