Julienne, Astrid and Bernt are studing entrepreneurship

On Monday evening, Solico had a meeting at the Embassy of Congo Brazzaville in Stockholm. Tonight’s guest was Julienne Sengomona Yaba from Point Noire. Bernt and I attended the meeting.

In the afternoon before the Solico meeting, Bernt and I had a meeting with Julienne and Astrid Stahlberg at the Hotel Birger Jarl. In our afternoon meeting as well as in the evening meeting, Julienn told us about her extensive work with the Savings bank for women in Pointe Noire. Julienne is the manager of the savings bank. The bank currently has 1,500 members. The purpose of the bank is to provide loans to members so that they can start and run businesses. The condition for getting a loan is to have saved money in the bank. You must show that you can save and set aside money to the bank. The ability to save is a good indication that the member will be able to pay her loans.

We believe that MSG’s activity with entrepreneurship training is an excellent supplement for this savings bank. Our four tools are: Education – business loans – contacts – monitoring. Education that provides knowledge – a prerequisite for entrepreneurship and money management.

An important prerequisite for successful entrepreneurship is to have both knowledge and access to money at a reasonable price.

Julienne seemed to be in very much in favour of our training and our hope is now that she starts an entrepreneurship education that will be offered to the members of the Savings bank for women in Point Noire.