The Gambian Women Finance Association (GAWFA) established a mobile banking technology platform and business skills training that reached 25 000 women in 100 villages.

The GAWFA micro-credit/loan scheme benefitted 10,231 women in The Gambia by assisting in creating jobs and financial returns to the beneficiaries. Of these, 1,545 women were trained in entrepreneurship and business skills and 375 women were trained on GAWFA’s Mobile Banking Technology platform to perform financial transactions and operations in a more transparent and accountable manner. Both interventions assisted in increasing both the competencies of the beneficiaries and the oversight mechanisms which ensured the success of the initiative.

The following accounts bear testimony to the success of the GAWFA project:

Njamatou Ceesay NgainSanjal, Member of the Gambia Women’s Finance Association (GAWFA).  “I am proud to be part of an organization that innovated such a financial delivery technology to support low-income women. It makes life very easy for me living in a rural community as far as financial transactions are concerned. What is more amazing is that I do not need to move an inch, my financial needs are solved at my doorstep at an affordable cost. I feel financially included and economically empowered”.

Arrabiatou Fofana: “I was volunteering in a building material store prior to becoming a beneficiary of this GAWFA project. Thank God, after receiving financial and technical advisory services support from the project, I am able to establish and operate my own building material store in my community. I am now able to independently take care of my own needs as a woman and also support my family in their various needs such as medical bills, education and other household needs”