1. The document describes a typical day visiting agricultural loan beneficiaries with a rural finance project in Sierra Leone. It details a long journey by motorbike to a village, where a meeting is held with farmers who successfully repaid agricultural loans. 2. At the meeting, farmers express gratitude for the loans that helped them grow crops like cabbage. With the loans, they were able to purchase higher quality seeds and inputs, improving their harvests. Their high quality cabbage crop was certified to enter export markets. 3. Visiting one of the cabbage farms, the author is impressed by how the agricultural loans have helped pull the community from dependency to self-sufficiency, selling crops internationally. The day concludes with an appreciative

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RURAL FINANCE STORIES:
A TYPICAL DAY WITH BENEFICIARIES

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RURAL FINANCE STORIES:
A TYPICAL DAY WITH
BENEFICIARIES.

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One of the farms funded by Kabala Community Bank at Nyafrandor village
Rural finance can be very useful tool when it comes to the fight against poverty in Africa and the general
developing world. The field itself has so many challenges both for the practitioners and beneficiaries.
Some years back, I accidentally found myself in this humble field and it seems to have become part of
me since then. This year, I work with a project run by International Fund for Agricultural development in
Sierra Leone. I am here as a Resident technical Advisor for Rural Finance and boy, life is not easy; you
have to encourage yourself here and there.
Here we do Community Banking. In community banking the bank is owned by Community members who
buy shares in the bank. It mostly targets members of the same community it operates in for clients.
Today, I came out of field work earlier than usual and so decided to share part of my yesterday’s
experience and some useful lessons albeit in a soft informal manner.
Yesterday, I was out on field work. I was accompanied by a colleague by the name of Mr. Lansana who
was the one riding the new XL motor bike and I was his passenger. Here, we don’t prefer vehicles since
they are not flexible enough for the terrain.
We had to be on the field since if you have to run a successful rural finance or microfinance project you
have to do more fieldwork, it is a prerequisite. This increases the depth and outreach of your program.
In other words it helps you increase how far you can reach clients and also the numbers of the clients. It
will also help us keep a closer contact with the beneficiaries and better understand their needs.
**
After the long grueling journey cutting across some of the most traveler unfriendly areas of the fertile
and hilly Koinadugu district in Northern Sierra Leone, we finally seemed to be coming to the end of our
journey.

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I could judge this because I could see that there were some signs of human interference with the
elephant grass vegetation that was growing along the lone narrow path that we were using.
The main purpose of this specific journey was to share experiences with members of a farming group
that had finished repaying the first cycle of an agricultural loan which was actually lent to the group. We
also wanted to see how we could do some sort of agricultural asset financing in future, given that we
had been toying with the idea for quite some time now. Basically we needed to test the idea that the
targeted group could borrow against their produce.
Just around the curve we came to a small as in thin long concrete bridge that had old unpainted metallic
railings and an extremely rich ravine below that appeared to have rich riverine vegetation that was
growing alongside what might have been forbs or some sort of strange healthy grass. Peeping below I
could see two men who looked like were taking a well deserved cold afternoon swim in the river. They
seemed to have recognized us, for one of them suddenly shouted “Hey Dixen, you are here!,” Honestly, I
did not recognize whoever it was, because during the time we was helping the loans officer in doing the
appraisal for the farming loans, I had spoken to close to two hundred people on a one to one basis and
since I have a hog-like memory I just didn’t remember who that was. I only waved back from the back of
the TVS bike that I was seated.
Just after the second twist that was next to the bridge, a village appeared from the blue. “Ahaa..”, I
rightly thought, ‘’ this must be Nyafrandor village”. Then Mr. Lansana whose was too preoccupied with
riding, cleared his throat as was his usual habit, and then said to me, “Majumba” as everyone we
worked with wrongly called me “This is the Kuranko village that we were coming to”
Looking back, I could not believe we had managed to travel this far on bike. I gazed the deep rocky valley
that was besides us and then at the inner me and said to myself, “Despite the challenges that we had
faced in this exercise we were now almost succeeding. We had given out farming loans and they had all
been paid except for only one division which had received its loans late. In lending, late loans are
unadvisable; this is because they come after the purpose has changed and so are not so useful for the
intention for which they were first requested. This may lead to massive losses.
******
It had been an excruciatingly hard long year for us, a year that was marked by a lot of ups and downs in
financing our customers. At one time the portfolio at risk had gone so high that it made me sick, just sick
enough to cause me to leave and go back to my native Kenya. When portfolio at risk goes up, it means
that the percentage of loans that have a high likelihood of being defaulted has increased.
The bank had funded several farmers on a pilot basis. No one had an idea on if they were going to pay or
not. Although we had tried our best to carry out a due diligence, sometimes things never worked out
perfectly. If things went wrong, I reasoned, then it would have been very bad, for the only stable
guarantee we had in this case was group guarantee and nothing much else.
******

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I came back to my mind and across the road I could see a file of ducklings led by mother duck crossing
the road. This caused the bike to swerve almost causing us to fall in the sand. “Had I been the rider, we
could have fallen” I said to myself.
Just then we stopped next to a small village shop that seemed to be stocking only what the villagers
needed and none of what they did not need. A tall dark lady came out and greeted us in a rather familiar
language by now, this I had learnt was called Kuranko. She then continued talking to Mr. Lansana who
seemed to be listening very keenly and observing as if he was studying the different muscles of her face.
When the lady finished, she rushed to the back of the house and came with a large group of people
following her. It seemed that there was another meeting going on behind the house.
They formed a semi-circle, which was very usual when it came to microfinance but not banking. I sat in
the middle as if I was the focal point of the meeting. The usual meeting procedures followed.
Some of the female beneficiaries
“The loans you gave us really helped us” started the tall lanky secretary who was dressed in a khaki shirt
a navy blue denim jeans and long gum boots typical of rice farmers. “All farmers that we guaranteed
have finally paid by now, so we need you to think of next year’s loans.” To me this was some sort of
relief to hear. It meant that the system of lending that we had applied was working. It was a system
where the farmers were required to carry out a peer appraisal and then co-guarantee each other. I had
seen it work very well in the Northern Bahr el Ghazal area in Sudan and in Kenya’s North Rift province,
but that was with small scale traders. The simplicity of this system was that the group was expected to
self select its members and each person were to take responsibility in case there was default. To guard
against risks that were as a result of natural death of a member, we had organized an insurance fund
which was supposed to guard us. Guarding against risk is arguably one of the most important jobs for
any financier and one of the easiest to get wrong.
I rejoiced to hear this, because when some clients pay one can always afford some sleep even though I
was not a loan officer or even part of the loans department. Agricultural lending in Africa is so risky and
determined by so many factors beyond our own control that sometimes those involved can only afford

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to pray and hope that weather will remain friendly, pests will keep away, and the farmers themselves
will not create excuses for not paying; I had heard stories where some bankers had resorted to prayers.
Farmer group at Nyafrandor during the meeting.
At this point, the chairman of the group rose up and started to speak through an interpreter who was a
young lady who looked educated as compared to the other group members.
“This year, every member received a total of one million Leones. About ten members used this on their
rice fields while the rest spent it on growing of vegetables. Since we are thirty members, we divided
ourselves into subgroups of five resulting into six groups.” I just glanced at him showing no emotion at
whatever it was he was saying. I had learnt from previous farmers that you only believed what you saw
with your eyes not listening to what chairmen said.
This was followed by speech after speech. My mind got tired and I could not follow the procedures, it
just went into autopilot. The speeches were all the same thing thanking and many other things. All were
in the native Kuranko and translated by the same person who was now very tired.
After the meeting two young men were called in from the back of the house and directed to chauffer us
to the farm which was about two miles away from the village on their Honda XL bikes. This made us feel
like VIPs albeit in a village way. All the three bikes looked old, maybe from the heavy work of ferrying
produce to the hilly Kabala markets and other goods to the village.
As we are on the path that appears to mark the end of the woods and into an extensive tract of level
open land, I can see beautiful green scenery that welcomes me into the land that is filled with green
healthy cabbages. The mere spectacle of such an approaching beauty overwhelms me.
“The loans you gave us, we used to grow these cabbages you see here. With the same fund, we were
able to purchase high quality seed from Holland and some higher caliber inputs which led to amazing
results. Luckily, officials from Fairtrade happened to come across and were so impressed to see what we
had done courtesy of the loans you gave us. Fairtrade is an organization that helps producers who are
doing high quality work sell their goods in the export market. As we are talking, our produce is certified
to enter the export market.” At this, I am amazed almost to the point of shedding a tear. At this point it
finally hits me how agricultural lending if done in a farsighted way can pull a rural society from a culture

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of dependency to that of self dependency. Looking forward you could clearly judge that this is harbinger
of better things to come for this particular society.
By the time we leave the farm, it is almost too dark. We pass by the village where we enjoy a tasty meal
of cassava leaves cooked in an appetizing monkey soup, besides there is a big communal plate of rice
where everybody scoops while discussing the day’s events. By this time, I am so hungry that I find myself
scrambling for some space besides the bigger metallic plate. I forget that I am supposed to behave like a
consultant. After this we are given two live chickens to share with the other IFAD staff as a sign of
appreciation, but I know these two will be headed for my kitchen only.
As I disappear into the pitch darkness away from the village towards Kabala on the back of the bike, I
inspired that this specific rural finance project and others across the globe have for sure empowered
communities. Here I had just witnessed people, who not so long ago were depending on alms and other
indecent ways of living, are looking forward to joining the lucrative exporters’ fraternity, thanks to the
rural finance project.
One of the cabbage farms funded by the bank.
By Dickens Aluha Mujumba RTA Koinadugu District Sierra Leone.