Micro-Entrepreneurs

Isatou Jatta, entrepreneur, and Foday Bojang, VISACA Loan Officer

The girls and I had some African dresses made in time for our Baha’i and Persian New Year (which falls on the first day of spring) by a friend at the Brikama market. In order to try on the dresses we needed to leave the tailor’s alley and were led to an unmarked office across from the market where we could close a door to try on the pieces (no mirror, though, we acted as each other’s mirrors).

As we emerged from the room we were introduced to the people whose office we occupied. It turned out this was the local VISACA branch. VISACA is the Village Savings and Credit Association. This is the Gambian non-profit that works with micro-enterprises for finance, credit and savings.

Micro-finance is an important force in economic development in poor communities all over the world, and the VISACA is part of that movement. This past year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, is a pioneer in micro-credit and finance. Eighteen years ago I worked on this issue in Kenya.

Layla and Anisa waited patiently with our Gambian friend from the market while I spoke to a woman who had come in to deposit her savings from the month. She is a baobab ice vendor at the military barracks near the airport and began her business just over three years ago. With the loan officer translating her Mandinka into English, she said that her life has noticeably improved since starting her business. She sells each ice for 1 dalassi, or about 3.5 cents. If she’s lucky, she’ll make $2 per day. At the barracks she rents a fridge in which to freeze her treats. She hopes that in the not-too-distant future she will be able to take out a loan from VISACA so that she can pay to get her home set-up for electricity to make the ices in her own home. This would allow her to spend more time with her family, and be able to expand her business. (Wiring for electricity at her home will cost about 50,000 dalassis, or just under $2,000 – that’s a lot of ices to be sold!)