VSLAS (Village Saving & Loan Associations) - Gambia

Information on Village Savings and Loan Associations in The Gambia

About VISACAs in The Gambia:

The Village Savings and Credit Associations [VISACAs] started in The Gambia in 1987. Funding for the pilot project was provided by KfW of Germany with CIDR [International Centre for Development and Research] acted as the technical service providers. The VISACAs are user-owned, user-managed and user-financed MFIs. The villagers defined the internal regulations of these financial institutions and select their own management committees and cashiers to run the affairs of the VISACA. The VISACA philosophy is self-help, self-management and self-sustainability. The management committees are composed of equal number of men and women. The strength of the VISACAs lies in the following:

• It geographical proximity to farmers meant bringing financial services to the door step of the poor.
• The operations are fast and simple
• The rules are adapted to suit the socio-economic environment of the milieu
• The absence of conventional collateral meant women can easily access loans from the VISACA.
• Because the VISACAs focuses mainly on the village, there is perfect knowledge about everyone and their repayment performance in the village before the arrival of the VISACA

The VISACAs, however, are not problem-free. The VISACA belongs to the village and the village by definition is diffused and widespread. This can lead to the problem of free-riders. In addition, individuals with the economic and political muscles can hijack the VISACAs for their own benefit. Providing services outside the village also introduces the problem of information asymmetry. Because of the low level of education at the village level, governance and management are perennial issues.

To solve these problems and enable the VISACAs to become financially self-sufficient MFIs, the VISACA Apex was created to act as a long term technical partner for the VISACAs. This part of best practice to have long –term technical partner for user-owned and user-managed MFIs like VISACAs.

How women entrepreneurs can leverage on VISACAs to be economically empowered?

The presence of VISACAs in the village means for the first time women are accessing institutionalized financial services especially credit. Before the arrival of VISACAs in the villages, the only sources of credit are shopkeepers, relatives and money lenders. Women most often than not are financially excluded from all form institutionalized financial services like credit. With the VISACAs, not only do they have access to financial services but also have a voice in the running of their VISACAs. Of the 80 VISACAs country-wide, 5 VISACAs are owned and managed exclusively by women. The VISACAs have economically empowered women through the following:

• Proximity to financial services meant women can save and access credit without leaving the village.
• Most women invest in human capital. Through their loans from VISACAs, women are sending their children to school by buying uniforms, books and paying their fees.
• Today women have few herds of cattle or goats and sheep through loans from VISACAs. Some of these sheep or goats are sold during emergencies.
• The trainings provided by VISACA Apex has improved the financial management skills of women especially the importance of savings.
• Through the sheep fattening and breeding loans of the VISACA Apex to the VISACAs most rural women have significantly improved their disposal income over the years.
• The VISACAs have also provided loans to ease mobility of students to school through purchase of bicycles.
• As part of our social monitoring benchmarking, the VISACA Apex insists on a certain percentage of the loans to go to women. This is because women loans have more impact on the household than loans received by their male counterparts.

 Requirements/criteria to benefit from VISACA services

Contact Information:

The President 

VISACA APEX, The Gambia

Tel: +00220 3902278

Email: mlsawaneh@gmail.com 

mlsawaneh@gmail.com