Ethiopia: Buusa Gonofa (BG)
Local rural finance services. In Ethiopia, some 20 of the biggest 
and most renowned rural microfinance institutions (MFIs) reach only about 11% of the rural population. While more and more MFIs tend to « urbanize » their operations in order to boost their financial results and achieve their operational autonomy faster, BUUSA GONOFA (BG) decided to go against the current and to operate exclusively in the rural areas. Since its creation in 1999, this MFI has been providing financial services to isolated rural communities from the Oromia region, where droughts are frequent.
The main objectives of SOS Faim consist on:
- extending BG’s operations into particularly isolated areas where no microfinance schemes are available through increasing its credit funds;
- developing an innovative and participatory approach in order to integrate the recipients into the process of granting and monitoring microcredits;
- helping BG to reach financial autonomy.
BG’s target public is regularly, if not constantly, faced with the lack of food security. In the Oromia region, many women and young people who do not own any land are forced to leave their villages to look for a better life in towns. Thanks to its scheme of local finance services, BG contributes to limiting rural exodus and improving the situation of families in rural areas.
BG was created by ‘HUNDEE’, an NGO whose activities are complementary to the services provided by BG (it offers non-financial assistance to the same target public).
