Cocovico cooperative market awarded “Grand Prize for Solidarity”
04-11-2011
Oikocredit cooperative partner Cocovico was honoured as the most remarkable project to benefit from social finance, by major French newspaper Le Monde and social investing network Finansol last night.
Le Monde and Finansol awarded the Grand Prize for Solidarity to the Cocovico women’s market, which is based in Ivory Coast and serves up to 5000 customers each day. The cooperative also provides a nursery and dormitory for its 200 female members.
Oikocredit’s partnership with Cocovico began in 2004, while Ivory Coast wasin civil war and no other funder was willing to lend to the cooperative. With perseverance, the market opened in 2008 and has remained open during the country’s recent turbulant political climate.
Cocovico president Rosalie Botti said the market played an essential role in the lives of those in the capital.
"With the contract financed by Oikocredit, the peopleof Abidjan were able to access food; it was the only open market in town. We also provided a place for traders from other markets who had nowhere else to sell their goods."
The market also provided housing to 400 people displaced because of war.
Oikocredit West Africa regional director Mariam Dao said Oikocredit believed in Cocovico when no other lender would.
"No bank had confidence in women without training, street vendors offer no guarantee. It was a challenge for Oikocredit and I love these kinds of challenges: investing in people, in poverty and seeing the reality that people can repay. The challenge was enormous and we won."