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 Virginie Diatta
Carabane
Virginie Diatta has long supplemented her family income by purchasing cashew wine from local farmers and reselling it from her house in her village on the island of Carabane. According to Virginie, cashew wine sales have been especially brisk lately because the summer rainy season has interrupted palm wine production in Casamance. Many of the women of Carabane also own canoes which they use to harvest oysters, and Virginie often purchases the oysters from them to sell along with the cashew wine.
Virginie has used her SEM loan to expand her business activities to the sale of Carabane oysters in the neighboring country of Gambia. The loan has allowed her to pay a “bush taxi” to transport her and a canoe load of smoked oysters overland across the border, where she sells the oysters at a profit. Part of the proceeds are used to purchase a return load of vibrant Gambian batik cloth, which is scarce and in great demand in the village of Carabane. Virginie now offers batiks in her store as well as the cashew wine and fresh and smoked oysters. The journey from Carabane to Gambia is long and grueling, but Virginie plans to continue to make the trip regularly as the long-distance trade is fairly lucrative and has allowed her to boost her income and improve the living standards of her family.
 Adeline Diatta
Carabane
Adeline Diatta’s main business activity is the production and sale of the salty dried fish that give the national dish of Senegal, ceebu jen, its distinctive flavor. Her village, Carabane, is not far from the border with Guinea-Bissau, whose fishermen often travel up the coast to sell their catch in Senegal. Adeline has arranged for some of the Guinean fisherman who visit Carabane to supply her with fish, which she cuts in half, coats in salt and puts on a homemade rack to dry in the strong African sun.
Adeline’s SEM loan has allowed her to market her dried fish in the capital city of Dakar, where they fetch a much higher price than in the Casamance region where Adeline lives. The journey from Carabane to Dakar takes a full two days – Adeline must take a canoe to the mainland, then a series of “bush taxis”, or makeshift country buses, north across the narrow country of Gambia, back into Senegal and out along the peninsula to Dakar. The fish are shipped separately, in a boat that travels up the coast from the Casamance region to Dakar. The price of fish fluctuates so much that it is hard for Adeline to predict what she will earn once in Dakar, but she estimates her profit from each trip at 25,000 to 30,000 francs (about $50-$60). She makes the journey to Dakar three times per month.
 Cécilia Diatta
Carabane
Cécilia Diatta works unpaid as a volunteer nurse and midwife at the maternity clinic in her village on the island of Carabane. Since she is constantly on call at the maternity clinic, she finds it difficult to leave the island. Still, Cécilia has started a small business buying sugar from a nearby village that specializes in sugarcane cultivation. One of the Carabane villagers who travels out to the village once a month has agreed to purchase a couple of sacks of sugar for Cécilia on each trip. Cécilia then sells the sugar at retail prices from her home in Carabane, earning about 6,000 francs ($12) per month in profit. The maternity clinic work keeps Cécilia from dedicating as much time to her sugar trade business as she would like. Still, the business provides a small stream of supplementary income that enables Cécilia to make extra purchases for her family and save a little for a rainy day.
 Daba Ndiaye
Louly Ngogom
“My name is Daba Ndiaye, I am the wife of Ndigue Diop and I work in our field. Today I am alone, my husband is absent for social reasons and I must do the work I always do with him. As for the child I have on my back, carrying him has become a habit. For this year, we have a lot of hope: the rains are good this year and we expect to have a good harvest. We are certainly grateful to those who put us in touch with CRESP [SEM’s in-country partner], which has helped us to use microcredit to find the funds we needed to buy the seeds, and we are well aware of what this money means for our families and for ourselves.”
 Mariam Sarr Diagne
Nder
Mariam Sarr Diagne operates a small restaurant in a homemade grass hut just outside her village of Nder on the edge of the Sahara desert. She prepares breakfast – coffee and French bread – in the morning, and in the evening she sells sandwiches and simple North African dishes such as couscous.
 Magette Gaye Pilor
Nder
Magette Gaye Pilor used her SEM loan to start a coffee and doughnut-selling business. She purchased a little kerosene stove, some instant Nescafé, and a supply of flour, butter and sugar, and set up a stand in a shady spot on the path that leads out to the yam fields behind her village. She now spends mornings there, preparing fresh doughnuts and coffee and selling them to the farmers who pass by.
 Ndèye Diaw
Nder
Ndèye Diaw works with a group of four women who pool their savings together to buy livestock. Last year they bought a young sheep for $43, which they raised in the village and resold during the Tabaski holiday for $100. Now Ndèye’s group has used the profit from that sale and from their new SEM loans to purchase a young cow.
 Annia Badiane
Carabane
Annia Badiane lives on the island of Carabane in the Casamance River, where the Diola people have developed a complex trading system in which each island village produces its own specialty good, such as dried shrimp or cashew wine. Small-scale commerce is traditionally a women’s activity here, and the Diola women spend a lot of time crisscrossing the river in handmade wooden canoes to buy and sell the various island products. Anna is using her SEM loan to participate in this inter-island trade by hiring a pirogue or handmade wooden canoe to travel to the island of Hayère, whose inhabitants specialize in the sale of the palm oil used in traditional cooking all over West Africa. Palm oil production is a very work-intensive process that involves harvesting the nuts of the oil palm, boiling them until softened, pounding the boiled palm nuts in a big wooden mortar, then returning them to the boiling water until the bright orange oil floats to th
e top and can be skimmed off. About twice a month, Anna travels to Hayère, where she purchases forty to sixty liters of palm oil at 700 francs (about $1.37) per liter. She then transports the palm oil back to Carabane, where the price of palm oil is 1,000 francs ($1.95) per liter. Anna thus earns between 12000 and 18000 francs ($23 - $35) from each trip, enough to leave her with a substantial profit after her business expenses are paid.
 Khotdy Ndiaye
Nder
Khotdy Ndiaye and the five other members of the Yakaar group currently own 6 goats, 2 cows, 5 chickens and 4 ducks. Their business model consists of buying animals at a cheap price, fattening them up for a couple months, and then selling them at a higher price. They will buy the animals from the more remote surrounding villages and then sell them in the Diourbel market, which is sizable and just a few km from Ker Gu Mag.
The group will buy a goat for about 20,000 – 25,000 CFA ($40 – 50). After fattening the goat for a month or two, they are able to sell it for 35,00 – 50,000 CFA ($70 – 100), depending on the size of the goat and the season. They purchase cows for 150,000 CFA ($300) and resell them for 200,00 – 250,000 CFA ($400 – 500). They buy chickens for about 1,500 CFA ($3.00) and resell them for 2,000 – 5,000 CFA ($4 – 10). Ducks are purchased for about 2,000 CFA ($4.00) and resold for 3,500 – 4,000 CFA ($7 – 8).
Khotdy is a real outspoken and confident woman. She said that the loan was very easy to manage and the group is making their monthly payments easily. When asked what the largest challenge has been, she said that the price of animal feed has increased considerably. It used to sell for 175 CFA/kg and is now selling for 250 CFA/kg.
Khotdy said that she would like to take a second loan. She is interested in opening a cyber café in Diourbel since they are currently very scarce.
 Limamou Seck
Ker Gu Mag
« I’m the leader of a group that has received a SEM loan. We work together to process grains [such as millet and rice]. We have now succeeded in stocking a good quantity of primary materials which we process and retail in the local market. Which means that thanks to SEM, we’ve created jobs for a few young people who are able to make a permanent living by engaging in revenue-generating activities. At the moment, the sale of our products allows us to save money to reinvest in expanding the business.”
The Propaf group transforms millet into five traditional food products: couscous, cagne, araw, sangal, and brulsure maise. The team has a workshop in the nearby town of Diourbel. This group has been working together making these millet-based products for two years.
The biggest impediment to the business is that the group doesn’t own a millet transformation machine. They have to rent the public machine at a rate of 25 CFA/kg (about $0.06/kg). To buy a machine would cost between 500,000 – 1,000,000 CFA ($1,000 – 2,000). Using a rented machine adds up to a significant cost and slows down the process of producing finished product. The group will be looking to buy a machine with their second loan.
When the group received the loan in December they used it to buy a large quantity of millet. They are now in a position to buy the millet by the ton – each ton cost 150,000 CFA ($300). Buying in bulk greatly reduces the price. Before receiving the loan the group would buy enough millet to produce a small quantity, and have to sell that quantity before they could buy more millet. In other words, they didn’t have enough working capital to build up stock – it was a hand to mouth business. Now they have plenty of extra material and are able to sell a much greater quantity as a result. The group sells about 50kg of product per day, on average. A kg of product sells for 600 CFA ($1.25), so daily revenue is now at about 30,000 CFA ($60.00). The daily profit is about 5,000 CFA per day ($10). The group estimates that if they had their own millet transformation machine, daily production could be increased to about 200 kg per day.
 Fatou Seck
Ker Gu Mag
Fatou Seck makes hand-embroidered sheets with matching pillowcases. The craftsmanship is stunning. The level of detail is high and it can take up to two weeks to complete one sheet and pillowcase set. She says that to make a bed set the material costs about 4,000 CFA ($8); she can sell the same set for about 15,000 CFA ($30). She gives her finished product to her husband, who has a small shop in Dakar where he works as a tailor. He sells her products for her out of his shop.
Prior to receiving her loan, Fatou would produce about one sheet-set per month. Now she is producing three or four. She has enough capital on hand to buy enough material to produce the higher amount of product. Before she would have only enough money to buy enough raw material to make one sheet, and she would have to wait until she sold the sheet before she could buy more material.
Fatou is pleased with the loan. She is happy that she can work from home. She is a mother of two small kids and working out of the house suits her lifestyle. The business is bringing in a profit; Fatou is saving the money. She reports that the is able to handle life’s issues more easily, or the little problems that come up with the house and children, now that she has access to more money.
In terms of the future, Fatou would be interested in taking a second loan. She would be interested in importing some of the products that are difficult to find in Diourbel, such as palm oil and dried fish.
 Khadijatou Ndiaye
Carabane
Khadijatou Ndiaye used her her loan to increase the stock of her small shop. She says having adequate stock on hand is the main challenge since she generally has access to limited funds. Just like any other business, it is important to have an adequate range and quantity of products, or else customers will begin to shop elsewhere.
Khadijatou lives on Carabane, a small island inhabited by approximately 600 people. It is a 30-minute pirogue ride away from the mainland. Life on the island is very simple, with certain amenities like electricity, internet, certain foods and various other goods and services unavailable. Nonetheless, life on the island has a really calm, laid back feeling, with incredibly friendly and hospitable people. The people of Carabane take a lot of pride in the fact that basically 100% of the children attend Primary School. Primary School is free and on the island. Many (all though not all) will take a boat to the mainland to complete High School. There are approximately five small shops like Khadijatou’s on the island.
Khadijatou said that she will visit Elinkine (on the mainland) about three times a month to purchase supplies. This involves taking a piroque to Elinkine, which takes about 30 minutes. She will buy rice almost everytime she goes, as well as whatever else is needed. She pays a fee to have to goods shipped by piroque from Elinkine to Carabane. For a one-ton bag of rice she pays 750 CFA ($1.50) to ship it. She then sells the bag of rice for 12,500 CFA ($25) and will make a profit of about 1,000 CFA ($2.00). She will buy about 20 bags of rice each time she makes the trip to Elinkine.
Khadijatou would like to take a second loan when this one is complete, to further invest in her shop. She believes that the largest limit to her shop’s growth is her ability to have access to enough funds to buy a sufficient range and quantity of products.
 Jacqueline Diedhiou
Mlomp
When Jacqueline Diedhiou's group received their loan they partitioned the money into groups of 25,000 CFA ($50), of 50,000 CFA ($100), or 75,000 CFA ($150), which were then distributed to the different group members. The different members work and function independently, while sharing the responsibility of repayment. They all sell mainly household products, but they do not all sell the same things.
Jacqueline sells soap, pens, erasers, notebooks, basins, and SOS pads. Other group members sell things like palm oil, peanuts and limes. Jaquline buys her products in Dakar where they are cheap, and sells them at a mark-up here in M’Lomp. As an example, she can buy a pack of 24 SOS pads for 1,200 CFA ($3.00). She then sells each SOS pad individually for 100 CFA, or 2,400 CFA for the 12 (a 100% mark-up!). Goods are shipped from Dakar to this region via a cargo boat.
When asked to discuss the difficulties associated with this business, Jacqueline states that poverty is everywhere. She explains that it is very common for someone to pay for a more expensive good like a basin (which sells for 1,000 CFA or $2.00) in three payments. What this means for Jacqueline is that she has capital tied up and is chasing for payments.
As far as future business plans, Jacqueline would like to take another loan and continue to expand her business. One thought for expansion is to sell products indigenous to this region in Dakar. She proudly states that she knows this type of business well and has the skill set to manage this type of expansion. Another idea is to build a proper shop outside of her home (she lives just off the main road). At the moment people know that she has these types of products and will come seek her out to buys goods, but she would love to formalize and with a larger quantity of goods in a traditional store.
 Ella Bernadette Manga
Oussouye
Ella Bernadette Manga sells palm oil, lemons, dried fish products and vegetables, which she buys in her village of Oussouye and sells in the capital, Dakar. Dakar is relatively far from this region - it is a journey of at least two days by either boat or "bush taxi" from the nearest town, Ziguinchor.
To support the large amount of trade between the southern region of Casamance and Dakar, there is a cargo boat that ships products between Ziguinchor, the nearest town, and Dakar. Ziguinchor is less than a two-hour drive from Oussouye.
Ella Bernadette's lending group has a contact in Dakar who sells their products. This person sells in various neighborhoods where she is known. The associate will basically go door-to-door, which isn’t an uncommon way to sell things here. The products are known to be of a high quality and she has a lot of repeat business. People here prefer to buy products this way, as opposed to going to a large market, which can be far, and the product quality unknown. The group sends their products to Dakar because the cost of living is higher and they are able to sell at a higher price.
Ella says that she would like another loan when this one is repaid, and that her quality of life has improved. She is able to care for the home, pay bills and send her children to school with much more ease. Now that she is able to pay her electricity bill her fridge is working, which means she is able to sell certain products (that require a fridge) that she couldn’t sell before.
 Fatou Kine Niang
Meckhe
Fatou Kine Niang used her loan to start up a beauty parlor specializing in the elaborate braided hairstyles that West Africa is famous for. In addition to Fatou, the beauty parlor now employs three hairdressers and eight apprentices.
They used the loan to make the building a hospitable environment, which meant doing some painting, refurbishing the entrance to the building, buying appropriate chairs, as well as ample supplies.
Fatou is pleased with how the business is going, and speaks of past frustration with having a hairdressing diploma and being unable to find work. She said had she not open up her own shop, she would be unemployed.
In terms of future plans, Fatou has many. She would like to begin to offer services to men. Fatou says that the secret to distinguishing herself from the other stylists is to offer a full assortment of products and services – being a full-service shop. Ideally the store would offer manicures, pedicures, make-up services, as well as sell all of the associated products. At the moment making such an investments is too capital intensive, but these are the types of things that Fatou would like to do in the future, perhaps after the initial loan is repaid and the opportunity for a second one becomes a reality.
In the meantime, the beauty parlor's apprentices are gaining valuable job training while earning additional income for their families. Fatou spoke of developing the program into a more formal school, which would provide an additional revenue source for her business.
 Jean Cristophe Diatta
Parcelles Assainies
Five months ago, Jean Cristophe Diatta used a $1000 loan to purchase five second-hand computers, which he used to launch a children's computer education program at the local YMCA. The program is now operating at full capacity, with three classes seven days a week, six teachers and over 150 students.
Most classes are for children, with a section for the 3 to 6 year olds (the “rabbits”), the 7 to 8 year olds (the “foxes”), the 9 to 10 years olds (the “doves”) and the 11 to 13 year olds (the “dolphins”). The cost is approximately $6 for a weekly class that runs for four weeks. They currently admit ten students in each class, so that children sit two to a computer.
One thing that Jean Christophe Diatta is most proud of was his sponsorship program for underprivileged children. He reserves 35 spaces for low-income children, for whom he actively seeks a sponsor that is willing to pay the fees for the child. Jean Christophe Diatta sponsors a child, as does SEM’s field officer, Doudou Mbodj.
 Moustapha Thiam
Meckhe
Moustapha Thiam used his loan to expand his traditional leather shoe-making business. His workshop now hosts ten apprentices, and Mr. Thiam's handmade footwear is known throughout Senegal for its quality and durability.
Moustapha has designed an intelligent business model in the sense that he has established himself as the source for raw materials in the region. Moustapha supplies the other shoe makers in Mekhe with the materials they need to make their products. Moustapha travels to Dakar to purchase his materials. Because he is buying in large quantities he is able to purchase goods at a discounted price. He then resells some of the material at a mark up in his own town.
Moustapha speaks of expanding his business. He believes that the demand is there. He would like to find partners to help distribute his product in other major cities.
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