{"id":11041,"date":"2025-12-17T13:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracamacheltrust.org\/?p=8536"},"modified":"2026-02-05T01:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:57:21","slug":"gisele-yitamben-is-helping-women-in-camerron-turn-their-work-into-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/uncategorized\/gisele-yitamben-is-helping-women-in-camerron-turn-their-work-into-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Gis\u00e8le Yitamben is helping women in Camerron turn their work into security"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWomen work incredibly hard, yet too many of their businesses remain at subsistence level,\u201d says Gis\u00e8le Yitamben. \u201cIf we want real change, we must finance what women do.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That conviction has shaped her life\u2019s work. When she finished university, Gis\u00e8le began as a lecturer and researcher, studying women\u2019s access to credit. The data, and the field visits behind it, revealed a pattern she could not ignore. Women were running farms, shops and services that kept households and communities going, but because their work did not fit the \u201ccash crop\u201d or formal business profile, they were shut out of conventional finance. \u201cFinance is the engine that moves everything,\u201d she reflects. \u201cSo I decided that is where I would put my head and my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, as Country Director of New Faces New Voices (NFNV) Cameroon<\/strong>, part of the Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust network, and founder of the Association for the Support of Women Entrepreneurs (ASAFE)<\/strong>, Gis\u00e8le has turned that insight into a steady stream of practical solutions. Early in the NFNV journey, she and a group of about 80 women leaders began by organising themselves: saving together, testing joint ventures and even buying land to experiment with productive projects like fish farming. When outside funding was slow to materialise, numbers dropped, but a committed core remained. \u201cWe stayed focused on one goal,\u201d she says. \u201cUnlocking women\u2019s access to finance.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the financial world shifted towards digital tools, Gis\u00e8le refused to be left behind. In her sixties, she went back to university to study digital finance and now leads a regional community of practice. This decision has allowed her to reimagine access to capital in ways that work for informal traders and micro-entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

One of her first innovations was a computer and network training academy<\/strong> for women and young people, giving them basic digital literacy. From there, she and her team began designing tools that spoke directly to the realities of women\u2019s businesses.<\/p>\n

They created a mobile inventory tool<\/strong> that replaces piles of handwritten notes with real-time stock records on a phone. Many of the women in her network had never kept systematic records, which made banks view them as \u201ctoo risky\u201d. The new tool changes the conversation. With support from what Gis\u00e8le affectionately calls an \u201carmy of digitalisation\u201d \u2013 young women students and graduates who visit shops, train entrepreneurs and troubleshoot issues \u2013 business owners can now show clear stock-in and stock-out records and basic sales summaries. \u201cYour inventory should live in your hand, not in piles of paper,\u201d she tells them.<\/p>\n

The model is deliberately circular. Entrepreneurs get better control of their businesses and a path to being recognised as bankable. The young women who train them earn income and build careers as tech enablers, developers and problem-solvers. \u201cThe energy and talent of young women give me hope,\u201d Gis\u00e8le says. \u201cWe are nurturing builders, not just users.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when cash dried up and trade slowed, Gis\u00e8le and a small team of young engineers went further and designed Abia<\/strong>, a community currency that runs over mobile phones. Members could pay part of a transaction in cash and the rest in Abia, then spend those Abia with other businesses in the network. For Gis\u00e8le, the logic was simple: \u201cEconomic development is about exchange. How do you keep trading when cash is scarce?\u201d Abia became a bridge, keeping commerce moving, stretching scarce cash and strengthening ties among local businesses.<\/p>\n

What shines through in every part of her story is a clear philosophy: solutions must grow from women lived realities and create value in more than one direction. Tools like the inventory app and Abia do not just digitise existing practices; they shift who is seen, who is trusted and who gets to participate in the formal economy.<\/p>\n

Gis\u00e8le is quick to emphasise that she does not work alone. She treasures the Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust network for the way it connects women across borders. \u201cThe GMT network is powerful,\u201d she says. \u201cYou meet women you would never meet at home. You learn, share and open doors for each other.\u201d Events like the Women Creating Wealth Entrepreneurs Summit, with its mix of learning, joy and practical showcases, reinforce her belief that when women\u2019s innovation is visible, it attracts partners and resources that can take local ideas to scale.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Gis\u00e8le shares a light moment with fellow network leads and GMT leadership during the Trust\u2019s Women Creating Wealth Summit in 2025. Picture from left to right: Penny Mapoma, Country Director, New Faces New Voices \u2013 Zambia; Gis\u00e8le Yitamben, Country Director, New Faces New Voices \u2013 Cameroon; Shiphra Chisha, Director of Programmes, Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust; Maureen Sumbwe, Chief Executive Officer, Zambian Federation of Associations of Women in Business (ZFAWIB); Dr Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula, member of the Expert Leaders Group on Women\u2019s Financial Inclusion and former Deputy Governor for Administration at the Bank of Zambia; and Korkor Cudjoe, Senior Manager, Entrepreneurship Programme, Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Her advice to young people is as direct as her approach to finance: \u201cBe curious. We cannot afford short attention spans on a continent so rich, yet still so poor. Use that reality to fuel your determination to build solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In every initiative she leads, from digital academies to community currencies, Gis\u00e8le is quietly rewriting the code of finance so that it recognises women as the economic actors they already are. \u201cWhen women can access and shape the engine of finance,\u201d she says, \u201cfamilies, communities and whole economies move with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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