Malawi - More SACCO's and rain

Brad - First Day with FINCOOP

After breakfast we walked down to Fincoop to start our day. We met with the General Manager Anthony Ngwira who has been with Fincoop almost since it started in 2004. He started as Manger under a contract from MUSCCO in 2006 and was hired full time as Manager in 2009. The Sacco has grown from 323 members as of December 2004 to 29,315 members as of December 2009. Their assets have grown from MK 7,189,000 in 2004 to MK 770,291,000, that is rapid growth and it has propelled them to the status of the largest SACCO in Malawi. 

Fincoop has a good mix of members with 17,723 being male, 10,180 being female and 1,412 being groups or businesses. They have made an effort to attract women members over the last two years and their efforts have paid off since the female members have grown from 3,531 in 2007 to 10,180 December 2009. They have adopted an innovative approach as they now have 4 mobile banking units that travel to the rural areas of the country to provide loan and deposit services. The units are crew cab trucks with secure caps on the truck bed; there is also a safe in the cap for the money. The truck travels with a Police escort and they have an arrangement with one of the banks to store the money overnight if they are staying out in the country. With this means of service they are reaching 95 mobile branch centres over and above their four branches.


Brad - Now on to Lilongwe

We started out for Lilongwe at 9:30 am after a great evening in Mzuzu, I was happy we were able to visit the city again it brought back good memories from last year.  We made it to Lilongwe around 1:30 pm and after we checked in (I got the same room as I had last week) we then took Davison out for a farewell lunch at Mama Mia after Lunch we was going back to Mzuzu that day. I will not forget the hospitality that Davison has shown us he is a remarkable individual. 

Bruce and I decided to walk to the golf course to have a look, but we only got half way and the skies opened up. We made it under an awning to wait it out, however after 20 minutes it was not letting up .  was tired so I went right to bed but at 3:30 am was awaken by a big storm. The wind was so strong coming off the lake it was blowing the rain right into my room; it was coming through the screen as a fine mist. The wind lasted twenty minutes then went away just as quick as it came, but while it was blowing I thought it was going to blow the room over. When it was done I was treated to a great lightning show over the lake, you gotta love the rainy season in Malawi.