Tales of Mortgage, Risk, and Taxation in Rural Senegal

This piece explores two different ways of accessing capital in the rural countryside: mortgaging and taxation. The goals and intentions of these two forms of capital formation obviously differ, as one targets individuals aiming to raise capital for personal development objectives or to cover for losses or unforeseen expenditures, while the other is concerned with revenue collection to the state or to local governments with the goal of improving public services. Nonetheless, both are linked profoundly to issues such as debt, property rights, titling, market integration and economic growth.