Strengthening Credit Unions in Developing Countries

1. How to count large amounts of cash quickly.
You get about 150 Malawian Kwacha (MK)for $1CAD. The largest bill is a MK 500 but a meal could cost anywhere between MK 3000 & 10,000 (for 2). So basically it’s like paying for a $90 meal with $5 bills (see picture for a typical "nice dinner out" bill, ie. not chicken & chips, see #4).
2. Look Right… I’m mean Left…. I mean Right
Getting used to cars coming at you on the other side of the road takes time… particularly when traffic lights aren’t working.
3. The Guy yelling at you from the Minivan is just a bus driver
The minbus system in Malawi is quite organized. The drivers have routes and pay licenses, but the vans are often in pretty rough shape. And when one pulls up next to you and beckons you inside, it’s okay that’s just his job... but don’t try this at home
4. Chicken and Chips
The locals must live on this cause they're everywhere… check the African version of KFC called Luv Dat Chicken!

Blake and I finally got some down time over the weekend. On Saturday we drove out to Salima, a village on Lake Malawi. It was a good chance to check out the countryside and see how the majority of the population of this beautiful live (thru the car window at 100km/hr mind you; the roads are pretty good here).

It’s a very different lifestyle as soon as you leave the city’s perimeter. Small houses with thatched roofs sprinkle the country side with large cultivated plots surrounding them. Locals walk up and down the side of the road – some herding livestock, some balancing massive loads of water or firewood on their heads. As we got close to Salima bike taxis became popular; people were sitting on padded bike racks on the back of their “cab”, one was even reading the paper as the driver peddled away.

Blake (Omista Credit Union, Moncton NB) and I spent our first week with Fodya SACCO, a small employee SACCO attached to Alliance One Tobacco processing. The tiny branch (probably the size of a typical North American boardroom) is located right next to security at the entrance to the Alliance One “campus”. There are 2 fantastic staff, Rita & Brian, to serve the 500 members, and a 5 member board… they truly are the little engine that could!

Fodya means tobacco and the tobacco industry is a big part of the Malawian economy. Alliance One is 1 of 3 large tobacco companies in the industrial park we’re in and it alone staffs 1200 labourers, not including management or other support staff. These labourers are often poor and uneducated, and therefore receive no service from the banks; Fodya becomes their access point for funds to build their lives. Most of the members we spoke with used the loans to build their houses, which they do one brick at a time, quite literally, over many years.

After 30 hours of travel our last flight descended into Lilongwe through beautiful blue skies with large puffy white clouds. The terrain between Nairobi and Liliongwe had been mostly green grasslands and we could see Kilimanjaro rise in the distance. The airplane landed, did a U-turn on the runway (thankfully no other planes landed!) and drove back to the airport. We were here!

My journey to Malawi begins in Ottawa. There I met about 24 fellow credit union-ers who, like myself, were about to travel to 1 of 3 countries in Africa to work with local credit unions by providing advice and guidance to support the growth of their system as part of the Management Coaching program with the Canadian Cooperative Association.