Mkimbizi

The past two days we have spent in meetings.  We have talked with the Coop Registrar, the Regional Administrative Secretary, some SACCOS officials, and our lawyers (we are having some contracts prepared).  As a result we have not gone out of town and have worked around the city.  Today we are not going out of town again – we are instead visiting one of our town locations, Mkimbizi.

Technically Mkimbizi is a suburb of Iringa, lying on the northwest side of town.  It is more rural than many suburbs with lots of fields and livestock.  We have had a SACCOS here for several years but it is just now getting its registration completed.

At locations like Mkimbizi it is hard to arrange meetings.  Every day most of the members are at jobs or tending their businesses.  On Sundays they go to church and don’t really want to have meetings in the afternoons.  Evenings are also difficult since most people (including ourselves) do not like to be out after dark.

When we got to Mkimbizi the members were still gathering.  When the meeting opened there were 17 members present, out of a membership of 78.  Itiweni told us that “in town everybody is always working.”

We started the meeting with our introductions, after which Request gave a lesson on coop history, using money to make money, and how women members are important in SACCOS.  Following his talk there was one question about competition among businesses, but there was a host of questions and a long discussion about women’s loans and how much to tell your husband about what you are doing!  Request is a pastor and did a good job of answering the relationship questions, but since we were there for the SACCOS and not for marriage counseling, he directed the discussion back to microfinance. 

After the meeting we sat down with the officers to see how they are doing.  Mkimbizi has grown its membership over the past year from 70 to 78.   They lost 10 or 12 members due to death or relocation, so the total number of new members was 18.  They made a profit of 2,548,000 TZS last year ($1,600).  They made 67 loans and had 100% repayment.

Mkimbizi was one of our business plan winners.  Last year we challenged our SACCOS to produce plans for small business opportunities that would help the community, the SACCOS, and the members.  Mkimbizi noticed that their area was in need of bricks and proposed going into this business in a small way.  After only 3 weeks they have produced 616 bricks at a cost of $0.30/brick.  Since they sell for $0.80/each they should realize a profit of over $300 when they are sold (they think they have a buyer already).  In the process they have created two jobs paying $9/day ($180 per month). 

Sandy interviewed two of the members who had taken out loans.  Margaret Nyenyembe is 43, married, and has 2 children in secondary school.  She has taken out 4 loans since joining this SACCOS.  Using her loans she has opened a drugstore and gradually built up her business.  She now employs several people to help run the store including a pharmacist.

Anzahile Mbamba is 63, married, and supporting 4 people (His children are grown and he is now supporting two relatives.).  He borrowed money to make some bricks for sale and for his two-acre farm, for which he bought fertilizer, seed and spray.  Using his profit from these ventures he plans to increase his farm from 2 to 4 acres and is hoping to borrow again.

Following the interviews we went for a walk to see the brick making business.  The bricks they are making are concrete bricks, not the more common clay bricks.  These bricks are more expensive but are in great demand since the other bricks slowly crumble from the rains and people are now starting to want to build in a more durable fashion.  They have set up their brick operations in one of the member’s compounds so that they can protect the bricks.  As we visited with them they mentioned that they are renting the machine they use for 10,000 TZS/day.  At this rate if they use the machine 5 days a week they can buy one in less than 6 months.

 

After looking at this we told them to have their SACCOS apply to Iringa Hope for a loan.  We will lend them the money for 1 year at 8%.  We walked back and headed for home.  Tomorrow we are off to one of the preaching points at Ihemi so we will be leaving early.

Mkimbizi is on the north west side of Iringa

Sandy gave a few words at the start of the meeting.  She was on the radio this week talking about women's empowerment.

While she was talking the members were very intent on her message.

The biggest item of discussion was what you needed to tell your husband about your loan!

Anzahile Mbamba is 63, married, and supporting 4 people (His children are grown and he is now supporting two relatives.).  He borrowed money to make some bricks for sale and for his two-acre farm, for which he bought fertilizer, seed and spray. 

 Margaret Nyenyembe is 43, married, and has 2 children in secondary school.  She has taken out 4 loans since joining this SACCOS. 

We walked over to look at their brick making business.

They are making all concrete bricks.  They are more expensive than the more common clay bricks but they last much longer.

They rent this machine for $6,50 per day.

This is the group that won the business plan competition. 

We walked back to the car and headed home.