Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

Thursday was filled with meetings, with a main emphasis on solidifying our partnerships. My day began at the head office of NMB, where I met with Robert Pascal to discuss the various models in supporting our customers financially. It was more or less an effective meeting in that I realized that we have tons of work to do. Our proposal is good to go, and now it’s time for implementation, setting up MOUs with branch offices and then talking with CNFA agro-dealers. The main takeaway from the meeting was that this is a pilot, and we don’t know exactly what our customers would like, but we can at least start and see where it takes us. So, looks like our implementation will launch this January! I’ll keep you posted on where we go.

In the afternoon, I went to Mikocheni to Selfina [alex, please hyperlink this], an organization that works with micro-leasing for women. The most successful aspect was the chance to talk with Roxanne about Grassroots Business Fund, where we not only discussed resources on microfinance, but we also discussed successful business models in working with community mobilizers and the importance of identifying first-time adopters.

Immediately following, I walked across the street to meet with Kibiby, Country Director of the Farmer-to-Farmer Program, and Kelly, Africa Programs Director of CNFA. We essentially planned our implementation strategy, and I will now be working directly with Shukrani in the CNFA Arusha Office in which we can plan each week for attendance at village visits and exhibition days as we build our sales channel.

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Jodie | Arusha, Tanzania