“My dream is to be able to expand my restaurant, and I’m sure I’ll be able to realize it if I keep selling myAgro cards. It’s possible to realize a lot of things with myAgro, whether you’re a farmer or a vendor.”
Soumaila Samake keeps a shop and a restaurant in Dialakoroba, a market village along the main road South out of Bamako. Soumaila was one of the first vendors to sell myAgro cards, and he’s had three seasons to profit from our vendor program. “I’ve benefited from my earnings as a [myAgro card] vendor,” he told us on Tuesday. “I bought a television and a battery. This helped my family a lot, because they could amuse themselves watching the news, or films,” he explained, showing how in rural Mali watching television is often a communal event. “My neighbors and friends come charge their phones with my battery,” he added. Soumaila used his vendor income to better connect himself and his village to the wider world—without leaving Dialakoroba.
It’s a big deal that a young entrepreneur as dynamic and motivated as Soumaila has been able to stay in his village. Without dependable incomes, many people leave villages seeking better lives. Farm families that cannot provide for themselves may pack up and move to a city; this rural-urban migration has made Bamako one of the fastest growing cities in Africa, creating crowded conditions and straining infrastructure. It is young Malian and other West African men who populate many of the overcrowded boats that make the treacherous Mediterranean crossing into Europe, after trekking across the Sahara desert. Life for those immigrants who make it to Europe is hard, in part because many send most of what they earn back home to families in their villages. These foreign remittances—earned at such high human cost—account for a large portion of rural income.
myAgro works with vendors in villages to support diverse, local livelihoods. Our vendor program supports rural entrepreneurs, many of whom, like Soumaila, are also farmers. By enabling farmers to secure inputs without going into debt, myAgro helps farmers procure a better harvest without risking their incomes on credit. myAgro vendors receive financial bonuses for the cards they sell, plus sales trainings and support for their businesses, including the attractive artwork, signs, and banners that distinguish myAgro shops. Soumaila plans to reinvest his profits in his businesses this year: “My dream is to be able to expand my restaurant, and I’m sure I’ll be able to realize it if I keep selling myAgro cards. It’s possible to realize a lot of things with myAgro, whether you’re a farmer or a vendor,” Soumaila said. With vendor income to help when crops are poor and farm sales to supplement when business is slow, Soumaila is able to take control over his livelihood. “I think that myAgo is the program all poor people have been waiting for,” he told us.
