Mali : Kafo Jiginew
The context: Mali (around 12 million inhabitants) remains one of the 
world’s poorest countries. Cotton is the main export product and drastic drop in cotton prices on the international markets poses a threat to small producers. It is in a cotton growing area in the South of Mali that Kafo Jiginew (“union of granaries”) set up its savings and credit network in 1987.
A project to assist the local population: Initially, the aim was to create a bank for farmers and run by them. It would store the savings of local people and use the benefits from investing them to provide microcredits to the farmers.
Today Kafo Jiginew offers two types of savings accounts: current account with an annual interest rate of 3% and a term account with a 4% annual interest rate. In addition the organization provides four kinds of loans:
- “Rural loans” which tide farmers over the lean season (between harvests) and enables artisans and shopkeepers to take out working capital loans.
- Short term ordinary loans which finance commercial or other economic activities carried out by women.
- Loans for the purchase of fertilizers
- Equipment loans, the only credit product granted for a period exceeding one year. It is used for the purchase of farming equipment and for housing construction or renovation.
Microcredits which give results: SOS Faim has been working with Kafo Jiginew for 20 years. Since 1988, we have been supporting the development of equipment loans, used for buying or replacing oxen and equipment (carts, ploughs, etc.) They are also used for off-farm investments (housing, small-scale commercial activities, etc.). This way, farmers can significantly improve their living standards and avoid sliding into poverty and famine when incomes from cotton crops are scarce.
