Ousmane Ndiaye

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Ousmane Ndiaye by Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund in Senegal. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 10 - 16 months, Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

"This year, I think that we're going to increase our production, because with this loan we'll be able to buy more seeds than we usually can."

« Cette année je pense que nous allons augmenté notre production, car avec ce prêt, nous pourrons acheter plus de semences que d’habitude. »

Note: The SEM staff has translated this message into French and English, staying as close to the speaker's original words as possible.

[Speaking to loan officer] « My garden is nice and green now. The only problem so far was the mixup about the date of the beginning of the repayments, which wasn’t your fault (laughs)… I know that the work has just started, but things will get better. You know, in agriculture it’s not possible to have a harvest before three months, but you’ll see – I’m going to send some of my vegetables to SEM!”

« Mon jardin est bien vert la seule chose, c’est l’erreur sur le début du recouvrement qui n’est pas de votre faute ; rire… je sais que c’est le débordement du travail mais ça ira mieux.

Vous savez en agriculture on ne peut pas récolter avant 3mois mais vous verrez j’enverrais des légumes a SEM. »

Note: The SEM staff has translated this message into French and English, staying as close to the speaker's original words as possible.

Moustapha Cisse, group member: « The only thing I worry about is to water the garden well as I wait for the harvest. »

« La seule chose qui me préoccupe c’est de bien arrosé en attendant la récolte. »

Note: The SEM staff has translated this message into French and English, staying as close to the speaker's original words as possible.

I met with Ousmane last week to discuss the progress of his business. There has been an unfortunate turn of events. All of the produce in Ousmane’s garden has died as a result of a problem with the water supply.

Ousmane has owned a sizable piece of land since his father left it to him after his death. It was always Ousmane’s desire to farm this land, but water has always been an issue. They have two wells on the property, but because the land is only 100m or so from a creek that runs into the ocean, the well water is too salty to farm with.

Some years ago a Belgium man moved to Boucotte. He began to construct running water for the town of Boucotte. The people were very happy since this was an amenity many of them wanted and the Belgium man was going to provide it for free. Once the pumped water was constructed, Ousmane could farm his land. A large tap was constructed in the center of his farmland, and he was able to water his garden with relative ease. He applied for a received a SEM loan to buy the needed products for his garden. The garden flourished under these conditions.

After a few months of receiving pumped water free of charge, things changed. The Belgium man told the people that the water was no longer free. He began to bill them. But the monthly bills were extraordinarily high, as high as $150 dollars per month. This is more that a monthly salary for some people and of course they could not pay the bill. When the people couldn’t pay, the Belgium man shut down the water supply. Without the running water, Ousmane’s garden could not be maintained, and all of the produce died.

Ousmane was really sad and angry to tell me this story. He showed me numerous photos of his garden when it was flourishing, and it was a sea of rich green produce. He grew all types of vegetables. Now the land has a polar opposite look: it is one large barren patch of land. It is quite sad to see how the land looked before and how it looks now.

Ousmane is still able to make his monthly payments with the other type of work that he does. He has a job working on the golf course at the Club Med in the very touristy Cap Skiring (yes a Club Med, I have never heard of such a thing in West Africa!). He said that the amount that he is responsible for each month is not much of a burden. The loan officers are aware of this situation and are discussing possible solutions with him.

Interestingly, in spite of Ousmane’s negative experience with his business, he is possibly the largest SEM advocate I have met. He has taken on the role of the village representative, and talks up the value of microfinance to a number of entrepreneurial women in his village. After we spoke privately, he insisted on having Bouba Carr (a SEM loan officer) and me sit down with a group of women who are really eager to apply for a SEM loan. The women are going to submit a loan application, and Ousmane has offered to act as a resource for the women should they need it.

Ousmane has numerous future business ideas. He owns a lot of land. In addition to the large piece of farmland, his house is on a fairly sizeable property. He would like to build some simplistic rooms about 20 meters away from his family’s home, to be rented to Senegalese people. The closest town to Boucotte is Cap Skiring, which is a fairly well traveled tourist destination. For this reason and others as well, Cap Skiring is becoming more and more populated. As a result of overcrowding, people are becoming more interested in living in Boucotte. As a result, Ousmane thinks rental properties would work well on his family’s land. A second idea he has is turning his farmland into a small, guesthouse geared towards ecotourism. I visited the farmland, and it is in a very quiet and pretty location, beside a mangrove-lined creek. You can take a small pirogue to Cap Skiring and the ocean via the creek. It is a quaint piece of land with potential.

My overall impression is that Ousmane is going to manage his monthly payments in spite of the setback with the water supply. This loan will be finished as of the end of 2007. I expect that Ousmane will apply for a second loan at that point to try to establish a different type of business.

Please feel free to email any questions to lisa@kiva.org. The attached photo is of the pump on Ousmane’s farm that is no longer working.

Actuellement je ne suis pas en activité, car la zone où j’habite ne permet pas de faire le maraîchage pendant la saison des pluies. Mais avec les fonds que Kiva nous a prêtés, nous avons fait des économies pendant la saison sèche. Ce qui nous permet aujourd’hui d’être en mesure d’affronter la période hivernale à l’aise grâce à l’épargne que nous avons mis de coté. Nous allons bientôt redémarrer la saisons de maraîchage. La seules difficulté que nous rencontrons, c'est l'eau. mais nous espèrons pouvoir faire bface à cette situation.