Although there are no direct connections to AKDN with Gates Foundation for this specific below mentioned story, but note that AKDN projects are also in Mali, Burkina Faso (W Africa), and there has been partnerships between the two on other projects.
http://www.akdn.org/AKDN_countries.html
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Développement international Desjardins enter into agreement to develop financial cooperative interconnectivity in West Africa, Haiti and Vietnam
A unique project to reduce poverty within countries in development
LEVIS, QC, Jan. 9 /CNW Telbec/ – Over the next three years Développement
international Desjardins (DID), a component of the Desjardins Group, will
carry out a major project aimed at increasing interconnectivity among nearly
250 financial cooperatives within developing countries. The project, funded
through a $9.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will
span three continents and will initially allow 830,000 people to gain access
to interconnected services, such as banking and electronic fund transfers
among the financial cooperatives, with the goal of ultimately expanding into
the extended DID network of partners.
Ismailimail 