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Like
in many developing countries, Senegal's Structural Adjustment
Program of the mid-nineties has resulted in overall
growth of the economy, but has been accompanied by worsening
living conditions of the most vulnerable people in the
economy: the women and children, the elderly and the
disabled. The devaluation of the currency exacerbated
further this problem in 1994, to the extent that 58%
of the households counted as being below the poverty
level in the late nineties. There was erosion in the
purchasing power of the poor and difficulties in access
by them to educational, health and social services or
any form of financial resources. Women in Senegal bore
the brunt of these changes, since they shoulder the
family responsibilities and traditionally do not have
access to financial resources.
A
number of national strategies were embarked upon by
the Government of Senegal to improve access for the
poor to social services. The strategies placed special
emphasis on the role of women including education and
training for girls and women, women's health and family
planning, as well promoting and ensuring basic rights
to women.
In
particular, attempts have been made to improve the poor
people’s access to financial resources. The poor,
and especially poor women in Senegal, as elsewhere,
do not participate in the formal banking system. While
participation of women in the informal financial system
is significant, the access to finance is limited because
there is no linkage between the formal and informal.
At the level of the village there are savings and credit
association such as the tontines and women's groups,
but the resources available to women are quite limited.
In
this background several microfinance institutions have
become involved in trying different approaches, including
mutual insurance, savings and credit associations, credit
unions and more recently the Grameen Bank system.
Horizons
Verts (HV), meaning Green Horizons, a microfinance
institution in Senegal approached Grameen Trust in 1998
to assist in the replication of the successful microcredit
system of Grameen Bank, Bangladesh. The objective of
HV was to introduce and institutionalize this banking
system in rural and urban areas of Senegal. It aimed
to target those who had no access to formal bank credit,
particularly women.
Grameen
Trust approved seed funds of US$ 41,000 to HV in 1998.
The project established local branches, targeting exclusively
the poor women and began disbursing loans following
the Grameen approach.
While
Horizon Verts provides financial services to its clients,
it also trains and guides its members in the development
and management of their micro-businesses. Currently,
most members of HV are poor and small farmers, usually
illiterate, who are interested in increasing their business
but lack the capital to do so. As they expand their
business, they do not have the expertise to reach the
scale necessary and to deal in the volume necessary
to reach large markets. HV is working to create business
groups for small farmers to achieve the scale necessary
to reach the large international markets and support
the creation of microenterprises and joint venture funding
for these.
HV
is also trying to find ways for poor people to save
their money in secure ways. It has introduced new financial
products, including the deposit certificates (for short
term) and coupon bonds (for long term) for its members.
These products help the poor to secure their savings
and contribute to planning for the education of their
children, marriage and health problems of family. It
has also introduced a micro-insurance scheme for its
borrowers.
HV
operates through 3 branches with ten field staff. Up
to December 2002, HV had reached 4,125 members. About
half the loans have been given for trading, 21% for
animal raising, 12% for services, 8% for agriculture
and 9% others. All its clients are women. So far $118,376,434
has been disbursed as loans with an outstanding of US$
85, 350. It has mobilized savings in the amount of US$
12,187. HVs repayment rate is 99.97% and portfolio at
risk reported is 0.051. Horizons Verts is currently
seeking new funds to expand its innovative program which
helped to improved the lives of poor people in Senegal.
Compiled by Lamiya Morshed and Zeeshaan Rahman
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