Once called the “Fortune of the Poor”, microfinance today is a promising sector that has according to experts, interesting development opportunities for a full contribution to the dynamic growth of our country. The finding is relevant. It yesterday came from the Secretary of State for National Solidarity Zahra Youssouf Kayad, who delivered yesterday to the public in front of her a global vision on the mutual character, the operation of microfinance institutions that are in line with our values ​​of solidarity and mutual assistance. When they do not release the potential of the private initiative of Djiboutian their clienteles.
“Microfinance is booming in Djibouti”
The Djiboutian Social Development Agency, ADDS, responsible for promoting the sector through its young management in microfinance, with a dynamic and professional staff, has been able to organize in collaboration with the Central Bank of Djibouti, the general meetings of Djibouti CPEC, North and South as part of the implementation of the National Strategy of microfinance, a commendable initiative of the Head of State. Let me make a brief history of microfinance in our country. Introduced in the late 90s, microcredits for women and has contributed significantly to financial inclusion of the latter.
Indeed, under the leadership of the government, the Social Development Fund had helped in his time, to respond in a timely manner to the broader concerns of our citizens, particularly women, to finance their income generating activities.
This successful experience, based on the original concept of the Grameen Bank microcredit Muhammad Yunus, has given way to that of microfinance, which is more comprehensive, allowing people, men and women, young and elderly, au benefit beyond simple credit, to build up savings and access to other financial services they were generally excluded. Overall, microfinance is seen around the world as an essential tool for socio-economic development.
The Republic of Djibouti, scoring largely in the wake and through the National Initiative for Social Development, has chosen microfinance as one of the main tools for reducing poverty in our country. Since 2008, at the initiative of the President of the Republic, the first popular savings and credit unions were promoted throughout the country.
The vision that guided the head of state in this initiative was mainly to provide our citizens an effective means to financially support their projects for income-generating activities and thereby strengthen their economic empowerment. Thus, a national microfinance strategy, developed in 2012, helped to increase the financial inclusion of the most vulnerable populations.
The government has pledged to press flawless own financing the implementation of this strategy through support for CPEC in their development process. Today, the microfinance sector is booming in Djibouti with three financial cooperatives, one in Djibouti, with four service points Balbala Eingueila, Damerjog and Arta, as well as a crate South, Ali Sabieh and Dikhil and finally a crate north Tadjourah and Obock.
These funds have been established with the assistance of the state and the technical and financial assistance from development partners such as UNDP, ADB, IFAD and IDB. These boxes Djibouti, North and South, have a vocation as general utility actively contributing to the creation of wealth, jobs and growth throughout the country, through the financing of economic activities of the unserved population by the traditional banking system.
These boxes were able to find their places in the Djiboutian financial sphere, offering a range of financial products and services to its members such as individual and microcredit, Islamic credits, loans of equipment and transport, namely motorcycles taxis, agricultural loans to boost vegetable growing, fishing inputs such as engines, boats and nets etc.
To date, all CPEC recorded convincing results with over 23,000 members and over one billion three hundred million francs as our volume of loans granted to members of the financial cooperatives.
Behind this figure, there are men and women regardless of their place of residence on the national territory were able to find in these institutions a way to start a small business; diversify an import of goods case, buy equipment to increase the productive capacity of agricultural cooperatives.
Once called the “Fortune of the Poor”, microfinance today is a promising sector that has according to experts, interesting development opportunities for a full contribution to the dynamic growth of our country. Since the launch of the first fund in 2010 by Her Excellency the First Lady and President of the UNFD, Kadra Mahamoud, financial services provided by microfinance institutions have continued to evolve exponentially. Know that the mutual character of your cooperative institutions is not the choice of a chance, characterizes our culture, our values ​​and our solidarity Djiboutian traditions, combined with the sense of trade awake you demonstrate. I invite you to participate massively in the governance of financial institutions.
Before concluding, I wish to warmly thank the Central Bank of Djibouti to the expertise it has shown during the period of the interim administration and the major role it plays in the regulation and supervision of microfinance institutions . I also take this opportunity to congratulate the leaders of centers which are for the vast majority of women for their hard work, done volunteer in neighborhoods, in the regions to promote microfinance and raise awareness about good practices of repayment credits. Finally, I encourage our fellow citizens to take full advantage of services offered by micro-finance institutions to support projects of tomorrow.