Women's businesses are saving lives

17 August 2005

The president of an MMD group – a Mata Masu Dubara group, meaning ‘Women on the Move’ in the Hausu language – she is still better off than others in the country.

Her MMD group – which is a savings and loans group that works like a small private bank which women put their savings into and take loans from – has ensured she and her friends have been able to ward off the impact of the food crisis. Other women have not had such a buffer.

“When last year’s harvest began, we saw how bad it would be,” Rahamou said. “We got together to discuss the future. I knew that we wouldn’t have enough food to get us through, that prices for grain would rise and it would get harder and harder to buy food. So I sold some livestock right away while the prices were still high, because I knew that buyers would pay less for animals as time passed.”

Rahamou’s husband cultivates millet while she fattens animals. That is, she buys young or skinny animals – sheep and goats, mostly – and feeds them well before reselling them at a profit. This business is particularly rewarding when she times her sales to coincide with holidays and celebrations, many of which traditionally involve the slaughter of a sheep. Rahamou also grows peanuts as a cash crop.

Most of the women in Rahamou’s village of Madarounfa are members of MMDgroups. The MMD project, set up by CARE International 15 years ago, has helped about 171,000 women across all of Niger to take out small loans which they then invest in small business projects to earn a living.

Each MMD group is made up of 30 to 35 women, and each woman commits to saving a small sum every week in the group’s cashbox. The cashbox serves as a revolving credit fund, from which members borrow small sums to launch or expand a money-making activity. The women then reimburse the cashbox, with interest at a reasonable rate agreed by the group, and the money is available for more small loans. So, without collateral, letters of recommendation or even a piece of identification, these women – all of whom would be rejected as poor risks by a traditional bank – build a reliable and ready source of credit.

If by chance a woman is unable to repay her loan, other MMD members will cover her debt until she can. This solidarity is impressive but also practical: when all members feel responsible to one another, they will go to any lengths to fulfill their financial obligations to the group.

Rahamou began her business with two ewes, each of which gave birth four times. She sold the offspring for use in marriage feasts. She invested her profits, supplemented by small loans from the MMD group, in other sheep. She bought each animal at 15,000 Nigerian francs (nearly £16) and sold it for double the amount.

When the current crisis began to loom, she sold two bulls, which are second only to camels in Niger for their high value. Rahamou sold shrewdly and got 115,000 francs (around £119) per beast; today, a bull brings barely half that.

Rahamou also explained how other MMD members developed safety nets against the crisis. Her MMD group bought peanuts just after last year’s harvest, when peanuts flooded the market and their price was low.

Now they have peanuts to eat or to sell at a higher price. They put their millet stocks to use, selling to group members at good prices. The women can pay back the millet in cash, in kind or with a quantity of peanuts at an equal value. This clever system benefits everyone, and the women did not deplete the MMD cashbox: at harvest, members will be able to pay back what they owe.

“The situation is difficult now, but compared to families that don’t have access to MMD, we’re not doing badly at all,” was Rahamou’s observation. Thanks to the CARE project, we have been able to come up with all these ideas. Other women don’t have the opportunity to get together like we MMD members do, they don’t discuss their problems together and come up with these solutions,” she continues with a hint of pride. “Without the MMD group and its stock, I’d have been able to hang on four or maybe five months with what we harvested last year. But with it, I’ve hung on until now. And the arrival of aid from CARE now means that we will be able to hang on until harvest begins.”

Rahamou said MMD membership has changed her life. “In 1998, which was also a very bad year, I wasn’t part of a group and things were really hard. Without the project this year, I wouldn’t have known when to sell my livestock and my family would have suffered. I was able to borrow when others were not.”

A number of the women at the distribution site agreed. All said that MMD membership has helped expand their knowledge – in fact, they mentioned this more than the expansion of their income. Working together has offered them new ways of thinking, new ways of solving problems. “We share our ideas and discover new things,” says one woman, “and the best thing is, we teach these things to our children.”

CARE International distributes emergency aid to those who have nothing, in order to help people survive. The men pick up a 50kg sack of millet for their families and women 50kg of grain husks for their animals. By distributing fodder so women can feed their animals, CARE helps them ensure their future revenue and avoid a crippling dependence on food aid.

That the people in many of Niger’s villages have very little to eat is by now well known – and their animals are suffering alongside them. Pasture lands are barren and herders cannot afford to buy food for their livestock. With the fodder distributed by CARE International today, women in Madarounfa can continue to fatten their animals and sell them on the market for a profit tomorrow. And their families can live off that income until the harvest time.