Training women to think business.
-
Mar 12, 2009 Posted by Christopher Moynihan
NB: Most microfinance programs loan to people with existing businesses. We loan also to women who wish to start new businesses. To help them create effective business plans, we conduct monthly trainings on business planning where prior borrowers and members of the microfinance committee train the new members using bambara and visual curriculum materials. - Caitlin Cohen
From Modibo Niang, our Malian Director:
We launched a large training program in our meeting room of our community center on Saturday the 7th of February, 2009. There were a total of 23 women in this training, lead by two members of the microfinance committee and supervised by me, the Director of the Project.
These women learned about the importance of researching the income and expenditures of their enterprise, the need to choose an enterprise for which they have adequate training, and estimating availability of funding for their work. They also learned about supply and demand and measuring the market for their product.
This is the first training of this nature that we have run, and all the new microfinance borrowers were here for this cause. Many of them learned lessons of great importance. According to Niamoye Kone, one of the members of the microfinance committee, “Many of the women conduct their projects without worrying about the needs and desires of their clients, and the best way to run their businesses.” All of sikoro, and above all the women who partook, were happy with this initiative and wish a long life to the project.