Improving Trade through Small-Business Microenterprise

The wholesaler is the key to developing value chains from farmers in the Ubangi to markets in the larger cities, including the capital city of Kinshasa, hundreds of miles to the south. Farmers will not expand their crops if there is no way to get the goods to markets.
 
Carrying goods to marketWe have begun funding pilot projects for trade in beans and other crops, with good results. One small group of entrepreneurs earned more than twice the amount of their initial loan in their first season of trading. We are now developing plans to train other capable people for this wholesale role and will lend money as needed for storage space and other initial expenses.
 
While our primary focus at this point is on creating wholesalers, we continue to seed some other types of small business development. Examples include palm oil processing and soap making, which uses the finer of the two types of palm oil produced.

 

Economic Development  |  Improving Farming  |  Improving Trade  | 
Improving Infrastructure  |  Local Management Development