Let me introduce myself. I am Brian Gately, director oftechnical assistance for the National Federation of CommunityDevelopment Credit Unions in New York. While at the federation, Ihave added credit union development educator to my title. Part ofbeing a DE, a National Credit Union Foundation program, iscommitting to your own personally designed program whereby you willfurther credit union community development. I committed to workingwith a credit union in West Africa since I speak French.

In 2003, I met Abou Ndiaye, the manager of MECZY, Mutuelled'Epargne et de Cr?dit de la Zone de Yoff. He had visited us at thefederation after interning for two months at one of our membercredit unions, Alternatives FCU, Ithaca, N.Y. We remained incontact ever since and a couple of years ago, I let him know myplan to work with a West African credit union, and he invited me tohis just outside of Dakar, Senegal.

My plan was to conduct a teller, management and loan officerworkshops and as facilitator, assist in the development of abusiness and strategic plan, including financial projections. Thiswould include meeting with the board and staff. MECZY, founded in1997 by fishermen in the village of Yoff (population 100,000), hadnever had a strategic planning session even though it had grown tothree (soon to be four) branches, over 10,000 members and 1 billionfrancs in assets ($2 million).

MECZY was founded on the same system as U.S. and Canadian creditunions with a board and supervisory and credit committees. There isan annual membership meeting. Loans are given at 14% annual rateand dividends are paid on term shares at 5%. The rate of inflationin Senegal is low, below 2%.

One might ask about Islam and interest, but it doesn't matter inSenegal, they charge interest and pay dividends, like our CUs do.The credit union is very well-capitalized at over 50%. They havevery good loan demand. The longest loan maturity is 36 months, andaverage turnover is 12 months. Most of the loans are formicrofinance. The one-on-one credit union system is used (asopposed to solidarity or village banking systems). The distributionbetween men and women borrowers is higher for men in number ofloans, higher for women in total amount of loans.

The officials were so grateful because they had been flyingblind, not knowing exactly how to continue to grow the creditunion. The meetings we had were lively and very productive, and thejoint report we completed will be very helpful to them since itlists timelines, responsibilities and people responsible.

So, what similarities did I find? Credit unions are creditunions no matter where you go. I found the same wonderful spiritamong the board and staff and the same helpful approach toward themembers. Also the software and hardware is the same-Bill Gatesrules. Electricity is reliable. The country is healthy.

After arriving, I hung out with Abou and his family, at onepoint we went for a long walk along the beautiful beach, the mainfeature of the town. I had scheduled an extra day to give myselftime to get immersed in French. That was good, because I wouldreally need it. I met most of the 15 staff members on Monday,getting up to speed on how the credit union is doing, itsfinancials and other items. And then on Tuesday afternoon, westarted the strategic planning session with over 20 peopleincluding the board. We broke up into two teams that came up withmany ideas and follow-up needs and then reconciled the two groups'work.

Music is big in Senegal and so is nightlife. Things don't evenstart until around 1 a.m. They have salsa and their own mbalax, aracy beat. Percussion is big. One Saturday night, Abou and a friendtook me out in Dakar, and we listened to the renowned Afro-Cubanband Baobab, founded by the famous Senegalese singer YoussouN'Dour. Abou introduced me to one of the founding members of theband, Rudy Gomis.

Draft animals are still used a lot. I saw more horse carts thancars in Yoff, the village where the credit union is located. Yoffis about 45 minutes north of Dakar and is where the internationalairport is located, but it still is a small fishing village. Asmentioned, the credit union was founded by fishermen. One of thosefishermen, Ibrahim Dieye (“Ibra”), is still on the board. Onemorning, Ibra took me out in the Atlantic in his pirogue, a woodenboat. He explained about the “masculine” and “feminine” seasmeeting at the peninsula of Dakar, making for great fishing. (Theseare two different currents.)

I was in Senegal a total of two weeks. The first week wasintense, working 10-hour days, including part of Saturday. But thesecond week was vacation, and Abou and his childhood friend Albouryjoined me.

The famous island of Gor?e is near Dakar, where Africans who hadbeen enslaved were sent off to the New World. We visited the islandand La Maison des Esclaves, the House of Slaves, where they werekept before being shipped out. It was an extremely movingexperience.

In an old Mercedes that Alboury had borrowed, we started off onour adventure, first to the north to the colonial town of SaintLouis and then up to the border of Mauritania to visit the Djoudjbird sanctuary. In Saint Louis we visited a museum to theA?ropostale pilots and had lunch at the hotel where they would staythe night.

We then continued south all the way to near the Gambian border,seeing Senegal's oldest, biggest baobab tree, over 800 years old.The baobab is a symbol for Senegal. Finally we went to the villageof Bonaba (Keur Assane) on the former Paris-Dakar auto rally runwhere MECZY is looking to do mobile phone microfinance with thevillagers. What the villagers really need is a place to save. Thereis no financial institution nearby. They have excellent cell phoneservice, so by buying cell phone cards and transferring part of thevalue to MECZY to their account there, that would be a way to save.This is in the idea stage-we just had the idea while visiting thevillage.