Birima: Putting Africa to Work, Erasing Loan Garantees

"The great King Birima spoke little but always honored his word, and his people greatly respected him." These are the opening words of Birima's presentation website. It is a new microfinance institution in Senegal, launched by famous singer Youssou Ndour (He sang 'Seven Seconds' with Neneh Cherry in 1994, which was a big international hit).

A nicely designed Microfinance Plus program, it seems: the clients arrive with their business idea, and discuss it with the Birima advisors who then helps them make assist the building their business plan. They then jointly evaluate the credit needs and the client can then get down to business. Birima encourages them to come back with a bigger idea once the loan is repaid.

All of this is explained in a simple diagram, translated in the different local languages and easy to read, though the figures are a little too masculine. But it's ok, microfinance has traditionally marginalized men, so no problem for this time if the women empowerment flag is not waving on Birima's forehead. Besides, what seduces me about the whole concept is its tailoring to the local culture, which includes very hardworking women taking care of the household and small commercial activities, and equally hardworking men, more involved in artisanal and manual work and officially heads of the households. The institution targets both, but with an obvious tilt towards men, pillars of the families in the traditional societies (and not only in Africa), and hence defensers of their reputation, the main commodity at stake when taking a loan from Birima, since there is no guarantee but the promise to repay that is given to Youssou N'dour and Birima.

Appealing to honour and the ability to keep one's word is also a way to pick those manly prides and push them to work instead of hanging around at the local café. On the other hand, it seeems obvious that not having to worry about losing their belongings, feeling secure about their well planned microbusiness, and empowered by trust in their ability to repay must push people to do better than expected. That is Birima's most interesting aspect, the differentiating factor that makes it unique, and the single thing that pushed me to write this post.

Birima's launch is coupled with the global campaign "Africa Works", financed by Benetton and designed by Youssou Ndour and other engaged artists. The brand's photographic signatures are all over the place, and it's a pleasure to look at them, forecasting the pride to be at work. A series of events are also forecasted, concerts, a videoclip, and a cartoon about microcredit "fica designed for the Senegalese community and African TV channels". It's fashionable on the social communication grounds to create cartoons, believing that it makes the messages clearer. I think movies serve the purpose better, because there are real people out there, and they might even cost less. In anycase, it is about conveying the right messages and writing the right scenarios, but anyway, the campaign's photographs of Senegalese micro-entrepreneurs are really beautiful, and with the fuss about microfinance wearing off, a good campaign is more than welcome.