The Lodge generates activity for its supply, its « Discovery » activities and also for transfers.
This offered the opportunity to put into practice our will to produce from the wealth directly profitable to the population.  The exchange rule is simple: they should earn a good living and provide us with quality service.
In practice we make sure that prices charged remunerate well without being disproportionate.

The first decision: we take no commission, all the margin is theirs.
We have a lot of satisfaction and success stories in our collaboration but also some failures due to misunderstandings and cultural differences.  Our vision of free enterprise as a factor for development is not always compatible with the village social organization.  We’ll talk about some successes.

The shop
We created a shop in the restaurant where you can find jams, soap, salt, shea butter, clothes, some sculpture and crafts and basketry…all produced by the village population.  The Me-Güri bags and dresses are the  creations of Emmanuelle, the weekend manager.  She provides work for two seamstresses.  Marie, our daughter, has designed products and trained a shop manager who looks after the accounts and supply as well as commission for the sales assistants.  The Lodge doesn’t earn commission from this activity.

Our partners.
Our taxi operators, Assane and Abou have to maintain and repair their vehicles and amortize in order to replace them (a big innovation in African management).
Iba the fish supplier comes with his cart every morning to deliver the fish he bought the same morning from the fishermen.  We estimate his margin to be in the order of 30%.

Maïmouna supplies us with fruit and vegetables and we give her a 25% commission on all her purchases and the delivery charge (the taxi she takes to deliver to the Lodge). She and her son have started a garden to produce their own vegetables.  She wanted to sell at production prices but we buy at the market price.

Thomas, Pierre, Lamine, Paco and Diegan, the guides, are from the villages and know everything about their area, its customs and traditions.  We look after the bookings and organization but are not paid for this work which we believe to be a service for our guests.
The soap in the rooms is made by Seynabou, a very dynamic village businesswoman.
Only one seller is allowed at the Lodge; Hanjar, from Niger, who makes good quality Touareg jewellery.  He almost lost this right as his family organized his marriage to a second wife of only thirteen years of age.  This became the subject of serious discussions about women’s rights and our disagreement with these practices.

Loans are sometimes agreed to improve their activity or to launch the season.  Maïmouna, for example, installed a pump for her garden and is now installing a second one.  These loans are interest-free.  A kind of informal and free micro-loan.
We encourage them to save and we are their savings bank; but we must admit that this activity remains very modest.

These trading relationships we consider fair provide resources to about ten people, all with families.  After an apprenticeship period, they understand our needs well and give us a really good service.  Our relationship is ongoing and thus guarantees them long-term revenue.