Banking in Malawi: Back in Malawi

The flight from London was interesting I sat with Christian who is the Director Social Services Europe, Middle East & Africa for Oracle he is from Denmark. We had a long discussion about the differences in our cultures. In Denmark they have a high tax rate but they do not pay for health care and post secondary education. Their wait times for most surgeries is 2 – 3 months and they have private insurance that you can buy that will get you to the front of the line in a private hospital. For that privilege they are paying up to 50% in income tax plus they have a 25% value added tax on top of that.

We must have talked for around 4 hours then I watched the movie District 9 which takes place in Johannesburg which coincidently was where we were flying to. So that took care of six hours in an eleven hour flight you would think I would be able to sleep but no. Do you know how long five hours goes by when you can't sleep and your but is sore from sitting, it is long. For the second year in a row I made the trip from London to Jo-burg without sleeping.

Our four hour layover in Jo-burg was uneventful and the best part was we had to go outside to board our plane in the warm African sun. A luck would have it I sat beside Rosemary Kanyuka the Chief State Advocate for Malawi Ministry of Justice who I had a conversation with all the way to Malawi. Still no sleep for 29 hours so far but at least I know a high powered Lawyer in Malawi.

We got through Customs and everyone's luggage arrived which was a good sign. We were met by Innocent and Henry from MUSSCO to drive us to the Sunbird Lilongwe where we checked in and I changed some US cash for Malawi Kwacha. Everyone was beat from the trip so we all went to our rooms I decided I was going to stay awake until night so I had a shower and went for a walk. We met for supper and went to Mama Mia an Italian Restaurant we had eaten there last year and they delivered a good meal again this year.

Made it back to the hotel and crashed around 10:00 pm awake for 38 hours so I slept pretty well.

We met Dixon the MUSSCO operation Manager at the MUSSCO office in the morning for a quick briefing before we head out to our respective SACCOs. Dixon reported that the SACCO membership in Malawi has grown to 100,000 from 70,000 when we were here last year and assets have grown by MK 500,000,000 good growth by anyone's standard. MUSSCO negotiated the purchase of a new banking system from Kenya that all of the SACCOs will be converting to within the next two years. They scrapped the banking system they were converting to last year since it did not give them the capacity they needed. Each SACCO now has a policy on Gender and HIV and Dixon stated there has been some movement on gender.

Their focus this year is member recruitment and working with the Government to pass the Financial Cooperative Bill which they hope will be law by this fall.

Robert and Paul then left with Henry for their trip to Blantyre and the rest of us got in a vehicle with Dixon to head north. My bonehead move of the day came just before we left when Bruce and I were looking for the international cell phone calling cards and I purchased 4 sim cards by mistake. We asked the clerk at the store for international cell phone cards and that is what he handed me, I just put them in my pocket without really looking at them, big mistake. That wouldn't have been so bad but we needed sim cards for the phones and had to buy them at another place because I bought the last four that store had. We didn't find out what I had bought until Bruce showed Kati about an hour and a half into our trip.

The trip was uneventful but the scenery is beautiful since it is the rainy season here and everything is so green and lush. We arrived at Dwangwa and went in to meet Davison the SACCO Manager Bruce and I will be working with and went to the Kasa Club for something to eat. This is the place Robert and Paul stayed in last year and we thought we were staying there as well. But no they were booked up and they got us a room at the Ngala Beach Lodge when we were told this, visions of last year popped into my mind. But my visions were not well founded as Chris and Sandy the owners met us and made us feel most welcome. This Lodge is right on one of the beaches on Lake Malawi and I have a great view of the beach and Lake Malawi right outside my door. There is a family of monkeys that run from tree to tree Chris says they are pests since they eat their garden vegetables but the tourists like watching them.

The other neat thing that they have here is two gecko lamps at the bar that three or four real geckos hide under to keep warm and attack insects that are attracted to the light. They were fun to watch scurrying around eating bugs it was great entertainment. So here is where my bonehead move comes into play both Bruce and I phoned home and used up 1,000 credits in eleven minutes, so my advice to you is learn the difference between a sim card and an international cell phone calling card or it will be expensive to phone home.

Stay tuned for stories of our first day at the SACCO in Dwangwa.

The view from the deck of my room in Ngala Beach Lodge