CARE's Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) Program in Niger - Successful Financial Intermediation in the Rural Sahel

Publication Date: Oct 2002
Published by: ApproTec
Document Type: Paper (Microsoft Word)

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Examining the success of a women's microfinance program in rural Niger

CARE's Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) project is a women's time bound accumulating savings and credit association (ASCA) program in rural Niger. Over the past decade, CARE has facilitated the creation of over 5,500 active women's groups with over 162,000 members that are providing the purest forms of financial intermediation to their members in some of the poorest parts of Niger.

Working from a very simple and appropriately adapted savings based product, sustainability and replication of the associations is easy to achieve. Due to the overwhelming demand for the product, CARE's role has evolved from service provider creating the associations to a facilitator that trains local animators who are then paid by the village women to train them. CARE estimates that there is a minimum of 200,000 practising members with over $3 million in savings.

This article examines the nature of markets for rural financial services in the Sahel and the characteristics of the MMD model that respond so well to that market. It also reviews the limitations of the model, as well as some of the adaptations that CARE has introduced in successfully replicating the program in numerous other countries in Africa.

[Author's Abstract]