Exposing local development fund wonders in Mangochi

Malekano Lenadi from Traditional Authority (T/A) Nankumba in Mangochi district might be living hundreds of kilometers away from the town but he will simply narrate to you with comfort that he doesn’t regret ‘your town life.’

Lenadi boasts that the village has everything in stock for him and his entire family members and will challenge you that it is mere bee keeping that has turned him into a thousandaire within his Mvumba Village.

He passionately told this reporter that he doesn’t joke when it comes to producing honey and vowed never to let any stone unturned when it comes to bee keeping and honey processing.

“I will tell you today [last Tuesday] that I bought six cows and have constructed a four bed-roomed house with the dimensions 8 by 5 meters at Linthipe one which is my wife’s original home,” said Lenadi, apparently with an enthusiastic countenance.

The middle-aged man is at the helm of Zokoma Producers and Marketing Cooperative Society Limited which produces and markets honey.

The 90-member cooperative, which was formed in 2007 is one untold story of similar other seventy-five business groups whose members are spinning huge sums of money in Mangochi, thanks to the Local Development Fund (LDF) under the Local Economic Development (Led) Project , specifically through the Deepening Enterprise Development (Ded).

Mangochi is one of the four districts where the Led program is being implemented following a decentralised approach where district councils are now taking a leading role in implementation program which in turn empower communities to do the implementation.

Led is a pilot project being implemented in four districts of Mangochi, Mzimba, Ntchisi and Phalombe and its main objective is to improve the social economic well-being of the local population and strengthening economic growth and draws its funding from government of Malawi and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

On Tuesday last week, The Nation was among few media houses on an LDF tour in Mangochi aimed at sensitising the public of the Led project and its benefits, among others.

The two-day tour exposed how people like Lenadi in Mangochi and other Led districts have seen their welfare-at both individual and household level-elevated courtesy of the LDF package.

Several site visits in Mangochi, for example, were conducted where journalists interacted with beneficiaries including groups under the Ded component of Led, field staff, contractors and the community at large and by the end of it all an interface with the district council staff was held to get an in-depth of how the council is facilitating the implementation of Led interventions.

Entrepreneurship growth

The Ded focal areas in Mangochi is unleashing wonders through the provision of business development services for local entrepreneurs through the provision of training in financial management and entrepreneurial skills, improvement of basic business skills, and the provision of market information and services, among others.

The Ded component is implemented by the Business Support Unit at local authority level.

For example, Zokoma Cooperative members underwent various business trainings courtesy of the Led project in 2012 which later resulted into the cooperative’s ability to start selling shares, among others.

This has merely instilled a sense of entrepreneurial culture among the cooperatives members who know the importance of paying back loans, pricing their products and effective business management.

This is how Idrissa Lemani, secretary for Zokoma Cooperative summarized the Led story on the Ded component: “LDF is simply our parents who have taught us the importance of entrepreneurship. We are a force to reckon with when it comes to marketing and selling our honey in town.”

Kachere group, plying its trade in Nsumbi village in Monkey Bay, is another Led beneficiary group under the deepening enterprise development component which is processing and selling fish as well as savings mobilisation.

Its operating capital was K50 000 but as of last week, the 20 member group boasted of K305 708 in savings and its money on lending is at K209 000.

In Mangochi alone, 75 business groups have been revamped since the start of the project, of which, 1812 members have been mobilized with 706 males and 1106 females representing 61 percent women participation and 10 individual business enterprises.

According to the Georgina Kansilanga, Assistant Cooperative Liaison Officer at the Mangochi District Council, current savings for the groups are at K14.7 million and that K10 million is in circulation as compared to when the groups were starting as their savings were only K480 000.

“Almost all seventy five groups have received trainings in the following areas of group dynamics, savings mobilisation, business management, marketing, skills development such as honey, fruit and fish processing,” she added.

Some other groups are involved in rice production, cotton production, irrigation farming, livestock production, bakery, savings mobilisation and investment, carpentry, barbershops, fruit processing and poultry farming.

Roboust trading centres

Monkey bay is among the four Rural Growth Centres (RGCs) under the Led project and Monkey bay RGC is situated at the north-eastern tip of the Nankumba Peninsula, in T/A Nankumba in Mangochi district.

Under the RGC component, communities were involved in identifying investment opportunities that were likely to spur growth through detailed economic assessment and value chain analysis.

To date, there are 13 projects that are being implemented under the RGC project in Mangochi.

The projects include the construction of one secondary and two primary blocks, tele- center, rice milling and plant and fish landing site, bus depot, extension of piped water, market, ex-ray machine and an auto clave machine (at Monkey bay community hospital), streetlights, ECD centre, sport ground, district administration sub-offices and tree belt.

And last week’s tour merely exposed to journalists how diligent the Mangochi Distric Council team together with the LDF staff in making sure that Monkey bay RGC really becomes a dream come true.

The streetlight sub-project, for example, has installed lights covering a distance of about six kilometers within Monkey bay centre from Msumbi turn-off to Marine College, and about two kilometers from Old bus depot to Chikoko Bay state house.

The streetlights, according to LDF communications officer Ina Thombodzi will improve the scenic beauty of Monkey bay especially at night.

Under economic empowerment category of RGC, a fish landing facility is being constructed as well at Monkey bay to support the fishing industry. The facility will have a fish landing shed, smoking house, ice plant, drying racks, dry fish storage, and sanitation facilities.

“These will contribute to improved incomes for fishermen and fish traders as value added services to support storage and processing will be readily available,” said Thombodzi adding “The project will support over 500 fishermen and traders.”

Monkey Bay is also set to shine when it comes to infrastructure to promote trade and also economic empowerment and value addition as the construction of a modern market and a bus depot has taken shape and is expected to be completed between August and September, 2014, according Mangochi District Council public works officer Cleaverson Nyando.

The market, for example comprises of kiosks and restaurants, butcheries, slaughter houses, open sheds and other platforms where about 220 vendors will be constructing their own stores.

Stumbling blocks

Although success stories of the Led project in Mangochi out-weigh challenges, it is worth highlighting some of the stumbling blocks gripping the implementation of the project and its beneficiaries.

For instance, during a media interface with in Mangochi last week, Kansilanga bemoaned low literacy levels among most beneficiaries and that most consultants are not fully involving local authorities when implementing some of their key decisions.

And Zikomo cooperative members for example, cried foul at length over the delay by the Malawi bureau of Standards (MBS) to certify their labeled honey which they believe could help the product penetrate big retail chain stores in the country as well as the international market.

However, it is worth praising the Led project and its impact on the ground in all the four pilot centers which if nurtured and multiplicated in other areas properly would see the inducement of pro poor growth and poverty reduction in Malawi.