At Nduli

After leaving Isimani we drove back towards town and stopped at Nduli.  Nduli is located north of town near the airport.  It is an easy drive and so gets lots of visitors.  As we drove up we could see that the church had recently been painted and the pastor’s house finished.  Everything looked fresh.

We were greeted by the treasurer of the SACCOS who told us that the members were gathering by the government building.  Nduli does not have a permanent set of offices so we normally meet outside under a tree.  Since the group wasn’t quite ready, we went to greet the pastor’s family.  The pastor has now moved into the new parsonage.  It is a very pretty house with rooms where visitors can stay.  The house has been under construction for a few years now so it is good to see it nearing completion.

From there we went over to the meeting.  The government building is a short walk from the church.  There was a group of about 30 members who had gathered to talk with us.  We have met many of them on previous visits.  There was one woman at the meeting who has made every SACCOS meeting since it began.  She always comes and takes notes.  There were other women who sat in a group and took and shared their notes with each other.

This SACCOS is very large.  It now has over 125 members and there are more people wanting to join.  The SACCOS has almost $13,000 of its own capital to lend and borrowed $10,000 from Iringa Hope last year, but still did not have enough to give loans to all its members.

Nduli also is one of the locations where we are developing AMCOS (Farmer’s co-ops).  The Nduli AMCOS is finishing registration.  It has 62 members at the moment but is expected to get much larger.  They are hoping to build a small building here to house their AMCOS and SACCOS.  We hope that we can help them with this.

Itiweni gave a talk about the importance of buying shares.  She then talked a little about the difference between an AMCOS and a SACCOS and how they should work together.  After she was done the leaders continued with their general meeting.  While this was happening we went to find a shade tree and sat there to talk with two of the members.

The first person we visited with was Leonora Malila, 45 and a widow with 3 children.  So far she has taken out 3 loans.  Her last loan was for $250 which she used to farm maize and sunflowers.  Here in Nduli the weather was not as dry as other places we have visited, so her crop was pretty good.  There was also a government maize buying program here so the prices were not as bad as they were in places like Isimani.  As a result her crop produced a profit of $680 for her.  She used $340 of this to send her children to school and used the rest of her profits to build a brick house.  The house is small, but she was very proud that she has been able to do this for her children.

We next talked with Bahati Chaula, 35 and married with 2 children.  He too has been a member here since the SACCOS began.  His last loan was for $150.  He too planted maize and sunflowers.  He made a profit of $250.  Since his children are still young he did not need to pay school fees.  As a result he was able to use his entire profit to buy bricks for a house.  This year he has borrowed $300 to again plant maize and sunflowers.  With the profits from this year’s crops he expects to complete his house and increase his savings.

Unlike other locations the members at Nduli all did well this last year.  They were able to repay their loans on time and in full.  Being on the edge of town Nduli also has many business people in this SACCOS.  Most locations give 85% of their loans for farming.  At Nduli the number is closer to 60%.  As a result this SACCOS makes loans year round rather than the once or twice schedule of most locations.  This means that Nduli is able to earn more interest (since their funds are loaned all year rather than for 6-8 months).  This last year their net profit was close to 5% - much better than most places where they earn 1-3%.

We left Nduli and headed for home.  We need to complete arrangements to meet with a Rotary Club in Morogoro.  We also need to talk over the upcoming meeting with USAID on now to make more capital available to the rural farmers.  This will be the first time that we have been invited to these discussions.  Previously USAID has tried to subsidize PRIDE and the CRDB bank to do this, however the programs have been largely ineffective.  They have been working with these two because they have large staffs in this area.  With our large network they have decided to see if perhaps we might be interested in their program.  We will see!

The pastor's new house is finished and he has moved in.  It has been under construction for a number of years.

Sandy showed his son pictures of one of our grandchildren.  His eyes got really big and he did not know what to think.

The SACCOS members were waiting under a tree near the government center.

This woman has been to every SACCOS meeting.  She seemed startled when we congratulated her.

 

These two ladies always sit in the front and take turns taking notes.

The group would like to build here, however the airport is being expanded and we are unsure what will happen here.

The first person we visited with was Leonora Malila, 45 and a widow with 3 children.  So far she has taken out 3 loans.

We next talked with Bahati Chaula, 35 and married with 2 children.  He too has been a member here since the SACCOS began.