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Kafo Jiginew (meaning Attic Union in Bambara) is a mutual savings and loan institution created in Mali in October 1987. Its mission is to provide access to local financial services (savings, credit, micro-insurance and money transfers) for low-income Malians (farmers, craftsmen, small traders). This is Mali’s first network of mutual village funds. This impressive organization (nearly 500,000 member-savers) is historically based in the southeast of the country, in the cotton-growing zone, but is present throughout the country (except in the north due to the political situation) and plays a fundamental role in financing the rural economy, as well as the urban and peri-urban informal sector.
Mali is a poor country in the Sahel zone that is the victim of a conflict between the north of the country (Sahara), with its desert climate and strong Touareg culture (Berber nomadism), and the south of the country (savannah) where the majority of the Bantu population live around the basins of the Niger and Senegal rivers. Since 2012, the country has been split in two, following the incursion of Islamic movements which now control or threaten almost half the territory, creating instability in terms of security (latent civil war), politics (repeated coups d’état) and diplomacy (clashes between Russia and the West).
Kafo’s mission is to offer local financial services (savings, credit, fund transfers and other services) to as many people as possible in Mali to improve their living conditions. Through its coverage (158 outlets, 80% of which are in rural areas), Kafo offers local financial services where other institutions are not present, in particular to finance the modernisation of agriculture.
