Azaratou Sondo believes that cooperative ideas are a powerful lever in the fight against poverty. She herself climbed step by step into the ranks of the national federation that groups savings banks in Burkina Faso. Since June 2019 she has been general manager of the FCPB, the Federation of Caisses Populaires du Burkina.

 

Azaratou is the first woman who has grown into this position. I simply put myself at the service of our members and their communities, she expresses this in very modest terms.

 

Over the years, the savings banks in Burkina Faso have diversified their products and services, tailored to, among others, female entrepreneurs. When it comes to gender inequality, Azaratou likes to quote Simone de Beauvoir: you are not born a woman, you are made a woman.