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The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is a multi-business operator whose mission is to contribute to the fight against poverty by promoting financial inclusion and entrepreneurship with social impact.
The Foundation has four main activities and coordinates Solidarity bankers, Crédit Agricole Group’s skills volunteering programme.
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Supported by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation, CA Franche Comté and Amundi, Kossam SDE is a subsidiary of Laiterie du Berger that aims to structure and strengthen the dairy industry in Senegal. In February 2020, Kossam SDE successfully launched the dematerialisation of the “payroll” for more than 850 farmers contributing to the improvement of their living and working conditions. Spotlight on the interview for Portail FinDev of Jonathan Michaud (former Solidarity Banker of CA Franche Comté) Director for the past 3 years of Kossam SDE) and Mamadou Fall, his Deputy Director, who shed light on this transformation.
Jonathan Michaud & Mamadou Fall: Until February 2020, all farmers were paid in cash during one or two specific paydays. Farmers used to travel to the factory in Richard Toll to collect the money due to them. Firstly, the cash payment was inconvenient for the farmers. They had to arrive early in the morning and sometimes wait all day in high temperatures. In addition, farmers were forced to come to Richard Toll on a specific day to get paid, without being able to make it fit in with their other travel. It was also laborious for Kossam SDE, as the teams had to handle cash for two days with some pressure linked to the waiting time of the farmers, which can lead to errors.
In November 2019, the Kossam SDE team decided to digitalise and the first digital payroll took place in February 2020.
JM & MF: We have identified 5 benefits for farmers:
JM & MF: The vast majority of our farmers do not have a smartphone. They have a basic phone that can only receive and send calls and SMS. We therefore opted for a code sent directly to the farmers’ phones. With this code and their ID, farmers go to the Wizall Money kiosk of their choice to withdraw their money. The beneficiaries (farmers) pay the costs associated with this service.
The introduction of this solution has clearly removed a considerable number of constraints for farmers, including time and organisation. In addition, we feared that farmers would be reluctant to pay for their money. However, the question of cost was not mentioned. On the contrary, it costs them much less than paying for transport to Richard Toll on a specific day of the month. We have not had any complaints in this regard.
JM & MF: The digitisation of the payroll was implemented just before the Covid-19 hit Senegal in March 2020, where drastic measures were quickly taken: curfews, forbidden gatherings, etc. Without digitisation, farmers would not have been able to move and would not have been paid.
Today, we are moving on to the second and final stage of payroll transformation. Indeed, there are 2 disadvantages to the SMS codes that our farmers receive on their phones: you need to have your own phone, which is not the case for all our farmers, and you also need a network. The main problem was that some people never received the code, so we had to keep paying them in cash.
To deal with this situation, we have provided all our farmers with an individual NFC card. The payment will be sent to this card in an electronic purse. Farmers can then go to a Wizall Money kiosk, hand over their card, enter their PIN and withdraw all or part of their money. There are no more network constraints and no more obligation to withdraw all the money paid in. This major innovation allows us to enter into new uses and services that are a form of micro-savings and passive savings.
From now on, we will be working on various subjects that digitalisation will enable us to tackle more effectively and with greater peace of mind: access to health insurance, development of savings and financial education.
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Launched in June 2018 at the initiative of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA, Solidarity Bankers is a skills volunteering programme aimed at all Crédit Agricole Group employees in favour of microfinance institutions and social impact businesses supported by the Foundation. Three new missions are to be filled in 2021 in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and South Africa.
Lazika Capital, one of the leading microfinance institutions in Georgia. Established in 2000, Lazika provides financial services to low-income people, smallholder farmers and microentrepreneurs. The organisation operates through 18 branches, mainly in rural areas of Georgia (70% of active borrowers are rural).
The Solidarity Bankers mission aims to support Lazika in the development of a marketing plan for mid-2021-2022. If the health context allows it, the mission will be carried out in June or July 2021 in Georgia. If not, the mission will be postponed.
Salym is a microfinance institution that provides affordable loans and deposits to support income-generating activities of low-income populations in Kyrgyzstan. The organisation currently has 23 branches across Kyrgyzstan and serves over 18,000 active borrowers, 52% of whom are women and 70% of whom live in rural areas.
A two-week Solidarity Bankers mission is planned to support Salym in managing its social and environmental performance. If the health context allows it, the mission will be carried out in September or October 2021 in Kyrgyzstan. If not, the mission can be carried out online.
SEF is a microfinance institution established in 1992 that provides financial and non-financial services to poor people in South Africa. The institution has 225,317 active borrowers (100% of women in living rural areas).
A Solidarity Bankers mission is to be filled to support SEF in the framing and training of its key employees on the risks associated with money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The field mission will take place in South Africa over a two-weeks period, if the sanitary conditions linked to Covid-19 allow it.
A first “digital / IT” mission is available to support Smart Credit, a microfinance institution funded by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation in Moldova. The mission of the Solidarity Banker will be to help build the digital strategy of Smart Credit. A second “financial management” mission is to be filled in favour of FATEN, a microfinance institution located in Palestine. The Crédit Agricole expert will support FATEN in updating financial procedures, policies and tools. These missions will be carried out remotely at the rate of one day per week, for 15 weeks.
To access the detailed offers of the missions:
More than 2 billion people around the world lack access to safely-managed drinking water services (*). In Sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of the population does not have access to water, mainly in rural areas and 135 million people, mainly women and girls, travel more than 30 minutes per day to have access to drinking water.
It is in that context that OSHUN, created at the end of 2017 and a partner of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation since 2018, deploys an innovative water access solution in rural areas. Through an economic model based on local entrepreneurship, OSHUN provides accessible quality water services at water kiosks, running on solar energy. These kiosks are managed by local entrepreneurs working as franchisees and integrate a digital component that optimizes their good management. This service, which is expected to develop widely in West Africa, has started in rural and peri-urban areas of Senegal and Burkina Faso.
Today, in addition to the kiosks, OSHUN is also working on installing water treatment systems in schools and health centres funded by public, private and solidarity partners. In collaboration with the NGO Marseille Provence Afrique Coopération, OSHUN has installed, since 2018, 120 water treatment systems in schools and health centers in Senegal. To date, this project serves around 40,000 beneficiaries with access to free drinking water. In addition to the installation and maintenance of equipment, OSHUN, in conjunction with community relays, sets up public awareness activities to help change behaviours. In the same spirit, the German Cooperation Agency for development (GIZ) has just ordered a turnkey project to OSHUN for the installation of 30 devices in health posts located in areas without electricity in Senegal.
In Burkina Faso, OSHUN is strengthening its action alongside the Société du Canal de Provence (SCP) as prime contractors in the rehabilitation of water pumps and the installation of water kiosks in 27 villages in the municipality of Bobo Dioulasso (second largest city in the country). Thus, the populations will be able to have access in the same place to raw water for domestic use and treated water for consumption. This project, which is to be completed in April 2021, will reach nearly 70,000 beneficiaries.
More information on OSHUN here.
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(*) Nations Unies
