When Cheikh Mohamed Elkarachi took over his father’s business during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the first changes he made focused on helping women in the workplace.
“I wanted to hire women, but we didn’t even have women’s bathrooms,” says Elkarachi, the chief executive of Rim Foam, one of the biggest foam and mattress suppliers in Mauritania. “I added separate bathrooms, so women would feel more comfortable working here, and I started hiring women for key positions, because I feel my country’s businesses need to become more diverse.”
To help make these improvements and expand production, Elkarachi took out a small loan in May 2024 from a local bank, the Bank for Commerce and Industry of Mauritania. This bank was able to support Elkarachi and many other entrepreneurs because it received a loan worth €20 million from the European Investment Bank.
The EU’s financing arm signed this bigger loan in February 2024 to offer financial help to small and medium-sized business, especially those employing young people and women in Mauritania. Toward the end of 2024, Bank for Commerce and Industry had given out small loans totalling about half of the financing it received from the European Investment Bank.
Courage to invest in ideas
The main goal of this European Investment Bank loan is to boost employment and encourage more people to start businesses. Mauritania’s economy suffered a lot during the pandemic, and there is a big need for investment in business growth. Enterprises helped by the Bank for Commerce and Industry in 2024 include Elkarachi’s foam operations, private medical clinics, solar panel installers, a pasta manufacturer, and a company selling rice-processing equipment.
To get support from the Bank for Commerce and Industry, businesses in Mauritania must show that they are trying to align with a global initiative called the 2X Challenge. The 2X Challenge was started at a Group of 7 economic meeting in 2018 to help development banks invest in women. The 2X Challenge’s latest goal is to invest at least $20 billion to help women from 2024 to 2027.
- Read how women are changing the future in one corner of the globe at a time.
“Mauritania holds vast potential for sustainable growth, especially with its rich natural resources, renewable energy developments and abundant fisheries,” says Marc-Antoine Coursaget, a loan officer for West Africa at the European Investment Bank. “By empowering women and youth, we can build on these strengths and create a more resilient economy.”
How to finance female entrepreneurship
In Mauritaina, economic inclusion is lower, especially for women, than in many neighbouring countries, such as Morrocco and Senegal. The percentage of women in the workforce is about 26%. This level has stayed about the same for the past few decades, according to the World Bank. Among men, labour participation is nearly 60%. Helping women get jobs will give a big lift to gross domestic product, according to the founders of the 2X Challenge. Youth unemployment also is high in Mauritania, at about 24%.
Oumar Mohamed Saleh, a Bank for Commerce and Industry loan officer in Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott, says it’s almost impossible to give loans to most women without support from the European Investment Bank. The terms of the cooperation with the European Investment Bank allow his bank to make repayments longer, reduce interest rates or ease clients’ collateral requirements. These terms are important because women often don’t have big incomes and they don’t have a home or car in their name to use as collateral. The Bank for Commerce and Industry can also allow clients to pause their payments if they are having business troubles.
- Read how businesses can identify more ways for women to contribute to the workforce and the economy.
“If a woman wants to set up a little business, such as selling doughnuts, they can’t go to a bank, because they usually won’t get a loan,” Saleh says. “Women end up working informally, making clothes or helping in food preparation. But today, we can help many of these women.”
BCI
Starting from scratch with many expenses
Saleh is the one who decided to give a loan to Elkarachi and his foam business. The 32-year-old Elkarachi qualified for the loan because he is young and because he is making his company more inclusive. He took over the business after his father died in 2021 from complications related to a COVID-19 infection. At the time, Elkarachi was studying political science and philosophy at Georgia State University in Atlanta, in the United States. He had no plans to run a business.
“I had to return to help the company, but I had no experience, not even in the factory, and none in the field,” he says. “I was starting from zero.”
What he did have was a lot of expenses. He was trying to expand the company into carpet manufacturing, hire more employees, and buy out shareholders who had owned the business with his father. He also had plans to hire women and more youth.
“When I returned to run the company, we had only men working here,” he says. “But we now have made it comfortable for women and I’m showing everyone why it’s good to employ women in every part of the business. They can do the jobs just as well and even better than men in some of the detail-oriented tasks. This diversity will help us have a better future.”
