On a warm day in Soma in the Gambia, when you need a fresh drink to cool down and rehydrate, you know where to turn to now. You go to Fatou Fatty, who will offer you a range of juices or some ice. Fatou is a native of Pakalinding in the Lower River Region, she grew up in Soma, a small community 148km away from The Gambia's capital, Banjul.

After four children and a decade into marriage, Fatou decided to seek out better opportunities to financially support her family and started a small business in her hometown. Her decision and project came to life after she got enrolled in the European Union (EU) funded Jobs Skills and Finance (JSF) for Women and Youth Programme, which focuses on climate resilience.

Fatou first benefited from the JSF programme as a Cash for Work beneficiary for three consecutive years, actively contributing to two garden projects and one solar installation project. Throughout these three activities, she diligently saved enough money through a mobile money account to purchase a freezer, which she now uses to sell ice blocks and local juices. Given the scarcity of freezers in her area, there is a significant demand for her products, particularly during the hot season.

Before starting her business, Fatou acknowledged the challenges she encountered in terms of savings and money management. She expressed:

“It was very difficult for me because I didn’t know how to keep my savings. I used to keep my money under my pillow, which was highly unsafe. Thanks to the programme, I was able to connect with Reliance and Q-Money, which assisted me in opening a bank account and learning how to save money digitally”.

UNCDF’s partnership with Reliance has offered a “smartphone financing" product to augment access to various financial products and services, such as mobile savings and lending accounts. The long-term goal of this product offering is to encourage savings and incentivise asset accumulation through formal channels while reducing the need for face-to-face interactions with agents and branch officers.

This partnership has allowed locals like Fatou to use digital savings to save money for important expenses like her son’s college tuition fees. In order to overcome mobility challenges faced by Cash for Work beneficiaries in different regions, Reliance conducted financial literacy workshops to enhance their knowledge and awareness of mobile money. Furthermore, weekly radio programs were conducted in English as well as local languages such as Mandinka, Fula, and Wolof to educate the locals about the benefits of accessing digital finance and its potential to bridge various financial gaps.

JSF ensures that women and youth participating in the Cash for Work component of the program receive their monthly stipend and financial education through a mobile money savings account. This approach aims to enable beneficiaries to learn and adopt the usage of mobile money right from the beginning, allowing them to leverage a variety of digital financial services, including purchasing phone credits and transferring funds between their savings accounts and mobile money accounts.

Reliance has also developed client-centric financial services (credit and remittances linked to economic opportunities etc.) for these youths (of whom 50% are women). The aim is to enable them to use their accumulated savings and acquired skills from the programme to start their own businesses. As part of the JSF, financial inclusion has contributed to empowering women to increase their financial autonomy, bargaining power and self-esteem, while reducing their vulnerability to risks.

One beneficiary stated, “This programme has helped me in various ways. Aside from the technical skills gained, I was able to open up my own business, use digital money to buy cash power for my house and my freezer, buy mobile credit and pay for my son’s tuition. In the near future, I would like to have my business on platforms like Afrijula so that anyone who comes to this area would know where my business is operating”. Afrijula is an online marketplace developed by Insist Global another JSF project partner (for more on this partner read the previous article).

As the JSF Programme closes in 2023, beneficiaries like Fatou are determined to continue working on sustainable businesses. They strive for increased financial freedom, improved livelihoods, and a more equitable and sustainable future in The Gambia.

More on Afrijula platform here and the program.