Aminata Ndiaye's Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Aminata Ndiaye's Group, consisting of Aminata Ndiaye, Mariama Ndongo Diagne, Mariama Pathé Diagne, Marie Diémé by Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund (SEM) in Senegal. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 10 months of this loan, Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund (SEM) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Since forming their group earlier this year, these four women led by Aminata Ndiaye have decided to give themselves the name of “Afebil”. The Diola word “Afebil” translates as “saviour” or someone who has come to the aid of someone else. The women in this group have used the money from this first loan of $1,000 to buy goods to sell on the local community on the island of Carabane in the Southern Casamance region of Senegal. See their profile here.

During my visit this week to Carabane, the group leader told us that the money has been used to buy produce such as peanuts, fruit and vegetables in the nearby town of Ziguinchor in order to resell them in Carabane and the nearby villages. Their business has been doing well, but in the current winter months they have been having more difficulty due to the need to spend many days harvesting the rice crops on another part of the island. For this reason, in the last 3 months, the women have had very limited time to try to sell their produce in town. In addition to this, the group have had problems with local customers delaying payments for goods themselves therefore making it more difficult to meet the required repayment dates.

However, the group are very thankful to the Kiva lenders for the opportunities they have been given and are “making every effort possible” to meet the repayments on time using their savings from previous months’ sales. To support more entrepreneurs like them, please consider funding another of SEM’s loans or joining the “Supporters of Senegal” lending team.