The prefect and the population of Saint-Louis welcomed the Be Yes caravan of the General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth (DER/FJ) on Tuesday, September 16, 2025. Led by its general delegate, Dr. Aïssatou Mbodj, the caravan landed around 11 a.m. in front of the headquarters of the Saint-Louis departmental branch of the DER/FJ. The population, including women, young people, and people with disabilities who benefit from the Be Yes program, gave the delegation a warm welcome.

More than 60 EIGs financed, including 22 in Saint-Louis

On site, the General Delegate of the DER/FJ, returned to the purpose of the caravan, before presenting the program and revealing the number of beneficiaries at the regional level. Here, 64 Economic Interest Groups (EIGs) were validated to benefit from funding, within the framework of the Be YES program, implemented by the DER/FJ with the support of the MasterCard Foundation. These 64 EIGs are distributed as follows: Saint-Louis 22 of which 67% are women and 7.7% people with disabilities; Dagana 21 of which 70% are women and 7.1% people with disabilities; and Podor 21 EIGs of which 69% are women and 2.9% people with disabilities. For Podor, the General Delegate of the DER/FJ deplored the low rate (less than 3%) of beneficiaries of people with disabilities. According to her, each department must, at least, select 5% of these vulnerable people, within the framework of this Be Yes program.

Each beneficiary GIE, according to Dr. Aïssatou Mbodj, will receive funding of 1,700,000 CFA francs. This makes a total amount of 108,800,000 CFA francs, including 37,400,000 for the department of Saint-Louis, 35,700,000 for Dagana, and 35,700,000 for Podor. Here, the total number of jobs projected by the DER/FJ, through this support is 640.

In addition to this funding, the DER/FJ will support beneficiaries in training and formalizing their EIG by transforming it into a community cooperative for the benefit of its members. It will also set up a post-financing monitoring service to monitor progress.

"You, the territorial administration, would definitely need your support."

On this occasion, the General Delegate of the DER/FJ requested the support of the prefects, as administrative authorities, so that the dynamic of territorialization of the DER's actions can prosper. "For this dynamic to prosper, succeed and bring more to the populations, it would necessarily require your support from you, those of you in the territorial administration. Because for us, it is a question of implementing the line drawn by the President of the Republic, Mr. Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, and his Prime Minister, Mr. Ousmane Sonko, namely: managing the needs of the populations but being at their side. And this is what we call in our jargon, the territorialization of the DER's actions," emphasized Dr. Aïssatou Mbodj.

She adds: "We no longer wait for projects at the DER headquarters or even in the branches, but we have decided to go to the project leaders, to take their projects, to train the leaders of these projects, to initiate them but also to formalize their economic units."

Beneficiaries urged to give more importance to DER funding

The prefect of the Saint-Louis department, in his welcoming address, advocated for positive discrimination in favor of women and young people in the old town. "Madam Delegate, we have a dynamic youth population in Saint-Louis. We also have quite diverse activities, because Saint-Louis has the particularity of having the sea and the river, which are fishing activities. We also have significant agricultural activity. We also have salt production. And all these activities, when implemented, can create many jobs in the department," argued Abou Sow, after congratulating Dr. Aïssatou Mbodj for the many innovations she has brought to the DER since her appointment.

The local government representative took the opportunity to urge beneficiaries to give greater importance to DER/FJ funding. According to him, this funding helps create jobs.

After Saint-Louis, the Be Yes caravan headed to Kébémer where it is eagerly awaited by the population.