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New credit scheme empowers food processors
2006-01-04 14:26:31
By George Michael
Four organizations have teamed up to support local food processors with a view to making them more efficient.
The assistance is being routed through Tanzania Food Processing Association (TAFOPA).
One of the supporters is TANZANIA Gatsby Trust (TGT) whose General Manager Olive Luena said last week their aim is to spearhead the development of food processing sub sector in the country.
Other partners include UNIDO, Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WED) and the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO).
She said most of the women in this nascent industry face a number of constraints, among them lack of finance to enable them to grow into a vibrant formal sector.
The creation of this association has enabled TGT and UNIDO together to put Tsh.100m into a joint credit scheme, to enable the TAFOPA members improve their economic performance and empower them to access markets both local and international,’ she said.
TAFOPA is a business-registered NGO dealing with the development of the food processing sub sector in the country. This association was formed by entrepreneurs supported by the Tanzania Gatsby Trust in collaboration with the UNIDO, WED Programme and SIDO.
TGT has likewise inspired other small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to establish their own associations through which micro credit programmes have been implemented.
One example is the UWAMWA (Mwanga Association of Producers), established in 1993 as a result of a TGT sponsored trade fair.
MSEDA (Mtwara Small Entrepreneurs Development Association) was established as a result of the 1994 TGT Mtwara trade fair.
UWAZI (Zanzibar Association of Small Scale Producers) was established in 1997 as a result of tourism and cultural festivals in Tanzania.
TGT is collaborating with some institutions in executing its activities. Those institutions include PTF (The Presidential Trust Fund).
Through this fund, TGT has been able to increase its credit portfolio from Tsh.15m in 1999 to 150m in 2003 and increase the number of borrowers from 300 to 2,500 in 2003.
The SIDO-TGT collaboration has been able to increase its credit outreach by 4,500 SMEs with a cumulative credit portfolio of Tsh.220m in the past five years.
In 1997, TGT carried out research in Rukwa region and Mwanga district, Kilimanjaro region, on the traditional rotating credit and savings schemes (known as UPATU/KIBATI or MCHEZO) operated by women. The findings assisted TGT to establish special credit schemes in the two areas worth a total of Tsh.22m in April 1998.
Due to the successful operation of the women’s scheme, TGT extended the facility to other women’s groups in Masasi, Zanzibar and Pemba.
So far 1,779 women have been been reached in the past 3 years. In this connection, TGT is proud to have been able to develop this operating manual for the smooth operations of the UPATU/KIBATI credit schemes.
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