WIC Capital backs Calinounou’s dwelling providers in Senegal

ImpactAlpha, December 12 – Senegal-based Calinounou offers an online recruitment and booking service for home cleaning, care and cooking services aims to professionalize a sector that is rife with unfair pay and working conditions.

“The level of informality in the care economy in Senegal has prevented the growth of its [workers],” said Calinounou’s Fatou Diop.

The business is working to improve the quality of domestic services jobs while keeping services affordable.

WIC Capital, which invests in businesses founded by and serving women in West Africa, invested 134 million West African francs ($215,000) in equity and quasi-equity to help Calinounou boost formal jobs and reduce gender inequalities. Calinounou also is launching a training school.

“We still have a tremendous amount of work to do to improve the working conditions of these professionals and the image of this sector,” said Diop.