The first obstacle women who hope to develop a small business face is financial : the exorbitant interest rates applied by moneylenders prevent these women from making enough profit to live descently. Therefore, Apef offers them microloans.

The first step consists in training these future entrepreneurs in the management of their credits, so that they can acquire the necessary knowledge: notions about credits and savings, marketing techniques, how to calculate cost prices, retail prices, and earnings. Ten two-day sessions have already been organized and fourteen more are planned for the next coming months. Then, Apef helps each woman undertake an economically feasible project that reinforces the web of the local economy.

Credits up to 400€ enable women and households to develop a small business. This is how Bernadette managed to buy two goats and a plot of land for cultivation of crops. Yvonne managed to relaunch her second-hand clothes shop and Jacqueline opened a little shop. These microloans really improve people’s life situation: the women helped have been able to offer better food to their families, better education to their children, and access to health care.
Apef also proposes a loan of about 800€ for the women who have already launched their own small businesses. They can make bigger investments in order to reinforce their company and in this way they also contribute to the development of the whole region. Some of them have already gone from the stalls of the markets to open their own boutiques; they have enrolled on the Companies’ Registry and pay taxes.

In 18 months, Apef has already granted about 1350 loans. The coordinators of Apef advise and bring technical support to these persons, for the whole period of the loan, so as to help them manage their loan and set up economic activities. The repayments then enable them to sustain other projects, hereby creating a collective dynamic of development and autonomy.