Off to Kitesengwa and Ifuna

Kitisengwa:

Our next visit was to Kitisengwa.  The Chairman opened the meeting by saying that the SACCOS had dropped many members because they were not repaying their loans.  They had to take these members to court to get the loans repaid.  Once the loans had been repaid, they dropped the members from membership.  A number of these members had petitioned to rejoin the SACCOS but had been refused. 

The number of members is now at 17.  There previously had been 40 members.  Of the 40 members, 20 had been men and 20 had been women.  For the last year TZS 5,500,000 had been loaned.  There were 15 loans made.  So the average loan was TZS 367,000 (or about $162). 

The Chairman explained that members thought that the money was a donation and didn’t need to be repaid.  The officers referred the issue to the police and the members finally repaid the amounts that they owed.  Then many members decided that they didn’t want to belong to the SACCOS if there wasn’t free money available. 

Before this village could consider developing an AMCOS, they needed to bring their membership to at least 20.  Therefore our discussion of how an AMCOS and a SACCOS work together was shorter than usual. 

There was a concern that NMB Bank’s charges for savings were too high.  Peter Silayo called CRDB Bank and was told that there would be no charges for the account of an organization such as a SACCOS, so he recommended that they move their account from NMB to CRDB.

The Chairman asked Peter to read a letter from Social Security.  They wanted to train officers of the SACCOS.  There was a question whether their response needed to be signed by four officers of the SACCOS.  After the meeting I asked Peter whether these requests were unusual.  Peter responded that SACCOS members trust the counsel of the Iringa Hope staff, and sometimes they are asked questions about things that are not necessarily related to the SACCOS.

We then went on to have two interviews.  Our first interview was with Hezron Ng`Alla.  Hezron is 40 years old and he has been a member of the SACCOS for three years.  He is married with four children.  He has two girls who are twins and 13 years old, and two boys, who are 7 and 3 years old. 

Hezron farms 4 acres.  2 acres are in maize and 2 acres are in vegetables.  Among the vegetables that he raises are Chinese cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, green peppers, and carrots. 

Hezron’s first loan was for TZS 200,000 to buy 3 bags of fertilizer that he used on both the vegetables and maize.  His income was TZS 1,400,000.  After repayment of the loan, his profit was TZS 1,200,000 (or about $530).  The income was from selling 8 bags of maize at TZS 35,000 per bag and from selling the vegetables in the market.  Some of the maize was kept for his family’s own use. 

His second loan was for TZS 300,000.  He purchased fertilizer for maize and vegetable farming.  His income was only TZS 600,000 this year.  Because of the weather, his crops were not very productive.  After repayment of the loan, his profit was TZS 300,000 (or about $132).

His third loan was for TZS 600,000.  He hasn’t yet finished the harvest of his crops from this loan, so he hasn’t yet received the income from his third loan.

He has received his income from selling maize to the middlemen who come to the village and he sells his vegetables in the town market. 

With the profits that he has taken, he is sending his children to school and he has built his own house.  For the members who we have interviewed, we find that, at the top of the list of priorities is always:  Sending their children to school.  Education is always very important.

Our second interview is with Dominica Ngeng’ena.  Dominica is 35 years old and she has been a member of the SACCOS for 4 years.  She has 2 children.  The children are two boys, ages 15 and 10.  Dominica farms 3 acres of maize.   She also owns a business of buying and selling clothing in Kitisengwa and in the surrounding villages. 

Her first loan was for TZS 300,000.  She used the money for the loan to purchase 3 bags of fertilizer for the maize and she purchased clothing inventory for her shop.  Her income for the year was TZS 450,000.  Her profit after repayment of the loan was TZS 150,000 (or about $66).

Her second loan was for TZS 350,000 for fertilizer and more inventory for her shop.  She hasn’t yet sold her maize and so she hasn’t recognized the income for the year yet. 

She says that she has used the profits from her loans to send her children to school.  Her future objectives are to continue to expand her clothing business and to purchase more land for her farming. 

 

Dominica said that she purchased 3 bags of fertilizer for use on 3 acres of maize.  Best farming practices would normally require the use of three 50 Kg bags of fertilizer per acre.  So, instead of 3   This is typical of many farmers.  They use less fertilizer than they should or no fertilizer at all.  This is because of what they can afford or because they don’t understand what is needed for the best yields. 

bags of fertilizer, Dominica should have used a total of 9 bags of fertilizer for 3 acres.

We now continue on to the village of Ifunda. 

Ifunda:

The Ifunda SACCOS was registered in 2015, so they have completed their third round of loans.  They currently have 58 members.  Of these members, 22 are men and 36 are women.  23 members received loans this year.  Of the members who received loans, 12 were women and 11 were men.  Some members did not qualify for loans because their repayments were late, and some members chose not to take loans.

The total amount of loans made was TZS 29,730,000.  Of this,

TZS 18,000,000 was from a loan from the Iringa Hope Joint SACCOS, and the remaining funds were from the internal funds of the Ifunda SACCOS.  The average amount of the loans for each member was TZS 1,293,000 (or about $570).  Members have already begun repaying loans and the SACCOS will soon begin repaying the Iringa Hope Joint SACCOS loan.

Venance gave the presentation of how the AMCOS and the SACCOS will interact.  There were not a lot of questions.  The Chairman of the loan committee said that he looks forward to the use of the AMCOS.  Farming inputs are very expensive and he looks forward to purchasing inputs through the AMCOS.

 The SACCOS Chairman recognizes the benefit of the AMCOS.  He intends to call a general meeting of the members next month to vote on proceeding to form an AMCOS.

We held one interview at Ifunda.  Our interview was with Atwasye Mlowe.  She is 43 years old and has been a member of the SACCOS for 3 years.  She is married and has 4 children.  Her children are 4 sons, ages 21, 18, 13, and 9 years old.  She farms 3 acres.  She raises 2 acres of maize, 1 acre of potatoes, and she raises chickens. 

Her first loan was for TZS 500,000 to purchase 4 bags of fertilizer.  She used 2 bags of fertilizer for her maize and 2 bags of fertilizer for her potatoes.  Her income from 25 bags of potatoes was TZS 1,700,000 and her income from 30 bags of maize was TZS 350,000.  This amount was her total sales after subtracting the maize and potatoes that she used for her own family.  Her total income for the year was TZS 2,050,000.  After repayment of her loan, her profit for the year was TZS 1,550,000 (or about $685). 

 Her second loan was for TZS 1,500,000 for fertilizer, sprays and irrigation costs for her potatoes.  She purchased four bags of fertilizer.  Her income was

TZS 2,700,000.  After repayment of her loan, her income was TZS 1,200,000 (or about $530).

She said that she sells her potatoes and her maize to middle men that come through the village.  She said that she sold her maize last year for TZS 40,000 per bag.  This was at a time when the market price for maize in Iringa was about TZS 60,000 per bag.  Hopefully we can get better prices for our farmers by organizing to sell directly to buyers, through the AMCOS.

Atwasye is currently buying chickens, raising them and selling the chickens.  She currently has 50 chickens.  She plans to have 250 chickens by October.  Her future plans are to raise 1,000 chickens at a time. 

She has used her profits to grow her chicken business and to send her children to school.  Her oldest son is currently studying at Tumaini University in Arusha.  Atwasye had been successful in growing her income for the benefit of her family through the use of access to credit.