On an early Wednesday morning, 16 women between the ages of 25 and 50 emerge from their houses to gather under a century-old mango tree, laughing and exchanging morning greetings as the sun shines through the tree leaves and a rooster crows in the distance. It is time for them to make their weekly payments as a savings and credit group.
Established in 2013 in Thiadiaye, Senegal, the group’s savings goals go beyond the usual wedding or baptism by providing women with access to credit. They now make payments towards a myAgro package consisting of high-quality millet fertilizer, seeds, and agricultural training. myAgro is currently in the payments period, when farmers work towards completing their farming packages on layaway in time for planting season in July.
“The layaway system is more suitable to us because in the past, we tried to buy fertilizer but couldn’t reach the amount of money needed. With the layaway system, we can buy a lot of fertilizer because we have more time to save,” says Rockhy, savings group member.
The women are all members of a SILC (Savings and Internal Lending Community) group, created by the American NGO Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with the goal of helping members manage their existing resources by teaching them financial management skills. myAgro’s partnership with CRS is called “Epargne pour l’Agriculture”, or “Saving for Agriculture”, and enables women to enroll with myAgro to pay for high-quality farming packages in small increments over the course of six months.
One of the differences between myAgro’s traditional model and the savings group model is that the payment process is facilitated by a Private Service Provider (PSP), a local village entrepreneur who works with CRS to create and support groups. The PSP collects the women’s payments and deposits the money into their myAgro account using the scratch-off code of a myAgro card.
myAgro integrates well into the existing savings group structure because groups already have the habit of meeting weekly to make payments. It is a strategic choice for myAgro to tap into these behaviors.
“I’m very engaged in my work,” says Samba, PSP, “When I introduce myAgro to savings groups, I tell the group members that I am their partner, and myAgro is their partner too. I tell them that myAgro can solve the problem we have here in the village of accessing inputs.”
“We were excited to enroll with myAgro because Samba is from the village and we have trust in him,” says Sète Ndour, President of her savings group.
myAgro’s North Star is to work with one million smallholder farmers by 2025 so they can increase their income and move out of poverty. Globally, there are twelve million rural clients participating in savings groups like the one in Thiadiaye. By partnering with organizations like CRS in Senegal, we are able to scale our model quickly while generating long-term sustainable impact for farmers and their families.
“My harvest from myAgro enabled me to start a chicken farming business,” says Saye Thiaw, savings group member. “Before SILC and myAgro, we used to have to leave for the city to find other jobs, but now we can stay in the village, run our businesses, and care for our families.”
