Micro-enterprise project trains women

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has trained several hundred Senegalese women in the Pikine savings and credit branch of the national Federation of Women's Groups, in micro-enterprise management. As a result of the training, the Pikine branch, based in a peri-urban area of the capital, Dakar, increased its membership from 482 members in January 2001 to 707 members in December 2001; a 47 percent growth in a year, USAID reported on Friday. The union, USAID added, also undertook initiatives to mobilize savings since the training, increasing the base from about 700 percent from June 2000 to September 2001. Over this same period loans have increased by 75 percent and the average savings per member grew from US $3 to $31. "Prior to the training, the organization had no formal record of the loans they had made and been reimbursed for. Loans were provided without financial evaluations, no follow-up program existed and credit union policy was ill-defined," USAID said. "The credit union was unable to provide viable financial information on their performance for their own use or that of potential donors. The union now updates its accounting and regular management documents daily, provides monthly and annual financial statements. Management has improved and become more transparent, with regular meetings held and the minutes published," it added. According to USAID, the success of the Pikine branch office is an inspiration for all 38 branch offices of the Senegalese Federation of Women's Groups credit union network within Senegal. More on USAID's work in Senegal