How Savings Groups Sparked New Opportunities for Rural Women and Youth
Learn how Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) are helping cocoa farmers invest in their farms, start small enterprises, and manage unexpected costs.
Ganou Diata has been making brooms in rural Côte d’Ivoire for 20 years. Every week, the 48-year-old cocoa farmer would painstakingly gather palm fronds and straw, weave them into brooms, and sell them at the local market. She earned about 35,000 CFA francs a month, roughly $63. While the money from her broom-making business covered some of her basic expenses, there was not enough money left over to save or invest.
“I worked blindly, without knowing what I was doing or why,” Ganou shared.
Millions of people in rural sub-Saharan Africa face a similar challenge. Less than a quarter of adults across the region have access to formal financial services, with rural access rates notably lower. Only about 14% of the rural population can access formal financial services, compared to roughly 34% of the overall sub-Saharan African population. In Côte d’Ivoire, the situation is even more limited for women, who make up 52% of the country’s eight million people without access to formal banks.
For women like Ganou, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) are filling a critical gap.
VSLAs: A Community-Based Approach to Finance
VSLAs are member-run microfinancing groups of 10 to 25 members who come together to build up their savings and access small loans and emergency insurance at interest rates set by the group. Typically, they meet weekly and pool part of their income. Each year, the fund and its interest are distributed to members according to their financial stake in the group.
These groups are the last-mile lending and saving mechanism for people who would otherwise have no way to invest in their farms, start small enterprises, or manage unexpected costs. VSLAs bring a sense of formality, transparency, and accountability that comes with their governance structure and processes.
For Ganou, the turning point was leveraging her VSLA network to connect with another VSLA whose main activity is selling brooms wholesale in Mali and Burkina Faso. Thanks to this partnership, her monthly turnover rose by 471%.
Project Awalé
Project Awalé was an initiative funded by Cargill to increase and diversify the income of cocoa farming households in Côte d’Ivoire. The project helped women and youth, in particular, develop the strategic, financial, and business management skills needed to successfully build a safety net not solely reliant on a single income stream from cocoa. An important component of the project was facilitating the creation or strengthening of existing VSLAs to improve access to credit and savings lines for project participants like Ganou.
The project offered training and coaching on:
- How to manage and plan income from cocoa
- How to calculate profits
- How to invest wisely
- How to explore new income streams outside of cocoa
For women and youth, the training emphasized personal development and entrepreneurial confidence, basic business management (including calculating revenues, expenses, and profits), financial management (especially using profits to reach business goals), and accessing markets for their products.
Proven Results
By combining VSLAs with entrepreneurship training, agricultural support, and women’s leadership, TechnoServe is helping communities mobilize their own resources and build new pathways for women and youth to participate fully in the economy.
Ganou now serves as secretary of her VSLA and mentors a group of 30 others. Her daughter, Badolo, shared her perspective: “Before the project, things weren’t easy in our family. Often, when we needed something and asked mom, she wanted to help but didn’t have the means. But since she joined the VSLA, when we ask, she does her best to provide. Since then, things have been better. When I see my mom now, I’m proud of her. When I look at her, I’m happy with everything she does—truly, very, very happy.”
After three phases of the program, Awalé directly reached more than 2,600 cocoa farmers and indirectly benefited more than 15,200 people. Almost nine out of 10 farmers boosted their incomes, with an average income increase of 72%.
The project also supported the creation of 46 VSLAs, which have mobilized more than $470,000 in savings and loans. Of this amount, nearly $100,000 has been reinvested in new income-generating activities, ranging from the production and processing of soap, brooms, palm oil, cassava, rubber, and maize, to livestock and aquaculture. Others have invested in retail and small trade, including clothing, accessories, and food products, as well as in services such as restaurants, food services, and tailoring.
VSLAs are a tried-and-tested methodology. Paired with the right training and opportunities through initiatives like Project Awalé, these groups are unlocking even more opportunities for rural entrepreneurs—potential that carries over across generations.
