Adding to basket
Benkelema is women’s group from the village of Sanga, in Cercle de Koutiala. The women know each other well and lives in large traditional families with their husband, children, and other relatives. The women average 38 years of age and have at least six children. This group of women does commerce in various goods, such as clothing and more.
To expand their businesses, the group members decided to join the Soro Yiriwaso loan program. They are on their 4th group loan.
Bintou, a member of the group Benkelema, is the one standing on the end at the right of the photo. She is a vendor of 'pagnes' (the colorful cloth of western Africa). She intends to use her loan to purchase lengths of ‘pagne’ cloth of different qualities, as needed, and then sell them at the retail level to a diverse customer base. She gets her supplies at the market.
While the other members of the group Benkelema plan on making an average profit of 185,000 francs CFA each over the course of the cycle, Ms. Bintou plans on making 195,000 francs. In addition to paying back the loans, they use part of the revenues to cope with personal expenses and to increase their business capital. They would like to see this Soro Yiriwaso partnership bolstered, so that their inventories do not run low.
In this group: Bintou, Aminata, Kadiatou, Fatoumata
Translated from French by Kiva volunteer Daniel Kuey. View original language description.
