MAURITANIA / MICROFINANCE

Mauritania is helping tens of thousands of urban poor by creating job opportunities where there once were none. A microfinance program is giving small loans to inner city residents to start small businesses, most of them run by women. WORLD BANK

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:59
• Production Date: 20 January 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD BANK
• Subject Topical: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; FINANCING
• Geographic Subject: MAURITANIA
• MAMS Id: U110120d

Description

STORY: MAURITANIA/ MICROFINANCE
TRT: 1.59
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: HASANIYA / FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: NOVEMBER 2010, NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA

Shotlist

1. Med shot, walking shot of woman carrying material
2. Med shot, Youman exiting house with material
3. SOUNDBITE (Hansaniya) Youma Barak,small business owner:
“I used to sew alone. Then I learned of the microcredit program, and we took loans as a group, and have developed this activity.”
4. Various shots, women making scarves
5. Close up, two women making scarves
6. Close up, scarves and pan up to woman
7. SOUNDBITE (Hansaniya) Youma Barak,small business owner:
“I would not do it if it weren’t worthwhile. But with this business I am able to pay for my children’s expenses, their clothes, their schooling.”
8. Close up, baby in arms of woman sewing
9. Wide shot, women making scarves
10. Close up, Youman’s face
11. Pan right, women
12. Close up, woman’s face and pan down to scarf
13. Close up, scarf and pan up to woman’s face
14. Close up, should of woman and pan down on her lap and baby
15. SOUNDBITE (French) Samassa Nalla, Director General of Micro Finance Institute, Beit al Maal:
“We have given 153,000 micro credits for income generating activities in two of Mauritania’s biggest cities, Nouakchott and Nouadhibou.”
16. Med shot, woman dying clothes
17. Close up, cloth in dye
18. Close up, woman’s face
19. Med shot, woman dying cloth
20. Close up, hands of woman rinsing cloth
21. Close up, Zeinebou talking
22. Med shot, Zeinebou talking with advisor
23. Wide shot, Zeinebou and advisor
24. SOUNDBITE (Hasaniya) Zeinabou Mint Ahmed, small business owner:
“We took the micro credit and went to the market and bought cloth and dyed it and sold veils back to the market, and with these sales we are buying things for our children and repaying the loan.”
25. Tilt down, from a woman hanging cloth to dry to more dyed cloth

Storyline

The el Mina neighborhood in Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott was once known for high unemployment and poverty.

Mena resident Youman Barak – a divorcee- remembers she was barely able to provide for her five children:

SOUNDBITE (Hansaniya) Youma Barak, small business owner:
“I used to sew alone. Then I learned of the micro-credit program, and we took loans as a group, and have developed this activity.”

Youman and nine other women now run this lucrative scarf business they started with small loans through a micro credit program called “Twiza” which means solidarity in the local dialect.

They buy the cloth from vendors in villages, creating even more jobs there.

SOUNDBITE (Hansaniya) Youma Barak, small business owner:
“I would not do it if it weren’t worthwhile. But with this business I am able to pay for my children’s expenses, their clothes, their schooling.”

To qualify for the small loans, people must be from the neighborhood, and must be in a group of no less than five, containing at least one woman.

To form their business, Youman and 9 other women were each given loans of up to 35,000 ouguiyas- about 120 US dollars- which they pay back over six months, at 3 percent interest which is used to provide more loans under the program.

The credit program is part of Mauritania’s larger Urban Development project, supported by the World Bank’s IDA fund.
SOUNDBITE (French) Samassa Nalla, Director General of Micro Finance Institute, Beit al Maal:
“We have given 153,000 micro credits for income generating activities in two of Mauritania’s biggest cities, Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, and 70 percent of these went to women who are also heading most of these businesses.”

The Twiza micro finance program has increased buying power of el Mina residents by 30 percent over the last three years, especially among women, who make up the overwhelming majority of Mauritania’s poor.

Small business owner Zeinabou Mint Ahmed speaks to a credit advisor about the loan she got to start her clothing business along with 9 other mostly women family members:

SOUNDBITE (Hasaniya) Zeinabou Mint Ahmed, small business owner:
“We took the micro credit and went to the market and bought cloth and dyed it and sold veils back to the market, and with these sales we are buying things for our children and repaying the loan.”

Zeinabou-28- says she and her business partners will soon have paid off their credit, and are looking to expand.