[2] At first, CECM received funding from the Canadian NGO "Développement international Desjardins" (DID), but DID withdrew from Burundi in March 1996.

CECM was approved as a Cooperative Savings and Mutual Credit Fund by the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (BRB) on 29 December 2006.

This would let members access their account through a mobile phone to make withdrawals, payments and transfers, view history and purchase units.

Point of Sale (POS) machines were being installed around the country using Econet and Lumitel SIM cards.

[9] It was providing credit to small farmers, particularly to women (70%), in sectors such as rice, vegetables, beans and fruit but not coffee.

To access credit women had to open a savings account and be a member of the bank for at least six months.

CECM uses external donors to meet the demand, and has always received support from international NGOs such as Oxfam Quebec, Catholic Relief Service, United Nations Development Programme and NOVIB.

CECM is responsible for monitoring and recovery of credits, but collaborates with Twitezimbere if there are repayment difficulties.

The agreement also concerns lines of credit or cash loans using funds from Twitezimbere when CECM does not have enough.