Twenty-two women in Grand Bassa County have formed SHIFSD's newest village savings and loan association — the first VSLA outside our seven primary counties.
Twenty-two women in Grand Bassa County have formed SHIFSD's newest village savings and loan association. The group met for its first formal weekly deposit on November 8, 2024, marking the first VSLA to launch outside our seven primary counties.
The VSLA model is straightforward: members meet weekly, deposit small amounts into a shared, locked box, and loan out to each other at a group-agreed interest rate. At the end of a 12-month cycle, the box is opened and everything is redistributed — savings plus a share of interest earned. No bank, no outside capital, and no dependence on the timing of an external donor grant.
Why Grand Bassa
Grand Bassa isn't in our official coverage counties, but a delegation of women there approached SHIFSD in mid-2024 after seeing how VSLAs had transformed savings-group members in Nimba. They asked whether the model could be adapted to their community, and — with support from our Nimba-based facilitators, who travelled to help train the founding officers — the answer became yes.
“Our village savings group started with 15 members and $200. Two years later we're 42 members and have loaned out over $6,000 to small businesses. No one had to leave town to find capital.”
— James T., VSLA Chairperson, Nimba
The Grand Bassa group is now the third community-initiated request we've had this year. We are keeping our formal coverage focused on the seven counties, but where communities can self-organise and want the training, we will show up.
