The 2005 Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance Annual Report

sugar cane plantations and operates the country’s largest sugarrefinery, employs nearly 4,000 permanent and seasonal workers.The Banfora area near the company is home to 70,000 people.The microfinance programme is designed to complement and expandthe input credit scheme currently managed by SN-SOSUCO.The programme caters to the population at large and particularlytargets seasonal workers, who often must find other economicactivity during the off-season. It will include credit for education,health, housing improvement, economic diversification, groupcredit, emergency loans, as well as others.A second initiative in Burkina Faso concerns the vast cottongrowing areas south of Ouagadougou, where over 15,000 farmersare cotton growers. The local ginneries are operated by FASOCOTON, a subsidiary of AKFED. As in the case of SN-SOSUCO,the concept is to deliver microcredit first to cotton farmers,building on the infrastructure of the industrial venture, whichwill then serve as a cornerstone for the broader local populationand provide them with an array of services extending far beyondcotton finance.IN COLLABORATION WITH AKTC, AKAMPROVIDES LOANS TO RESIDENTS OF HIS-TORIC CAIRO TO ASSIST IN THE REHABILITA-TION OF HOUSES AND THE REVITALISATIONOF THE DISTRICT’S CULTURAL HERITAGE.EGYPTThe microfinance programme in Egypt began in the district ofDarb Al-Ahmar in Cairo’s Historic City. It is managed centrallyby the First MicroFinance Foundation, which was established in2005 and since expanded beyond Cairo to the rural areas of theAswan Governorate.The programme in Cairo focuses on the revitalisation of animpoverished and dense district, called Darb al-Ahmar, whichborders Al-Azhar Park, one of the AKTC’s largest projects. Duemainly to the lack of infrastructure maintenance, low family incomesand the severe deterioration of monuments and privatehousing, development of the area has lagged behind other partsof Cairo. Living conditions have deteriorated over the past fewdecades. The institution supports local ownership, stimulates the25