2019-07-23

Tue 23. July: Beanspackers - and check FARIPs liquidity

The new registration form for the TSS deals by TBM are working out. We managed to make it completely clear what TBM still owes 4 farmers in Msowero. Bahat is glad to be able to explain this in detail and entirely transparently. Also, the form worked amazingly well for registering the somewhat complicated charbrikettes deal and for finalizing the beans deal, where we need to learn to calculate in batches.
The big dilemma in tracking money on African markets is this: When you have money you must use it opportunistically and immediately in the daily chaos of the market. If you can’t, then you become unreliable in the eyes of your market partners. So money flows through various transactions at the same time, that often have little to do with each other and yet would need to be accounted against each other if any formalized money tracking would take place. So how do we formalize such day-to-day opportunistic movement of cash going in various directions in a way that it becomes formally manageable? Big question! We’re still exploring how. The form for estimating and then tracking deals (the TSS form) is a good starting point.
And another big issue at present: FARIPs incomes have not come up as expected. So the challenge is to make sure that liquidity is maintained over at least 12 months in advance, inspite of FARIP putting scarce money into various ventures. Of course spending must balance out with the intake of new money into FARIP. So we really must improve the fundraising of FARIP so that we do not delay on promised support to ventures or that we must reject the support to interesting ventures, no matter how much they look like a breakthrough.
And finally we watched Lucy do her Beans-packaging, and in the evening discuss her business. This beans packaging looks like it is so far the best and steady venture. We must admire Lucys and her mothers stamina and skills in being a shopkeeper and actors in the Makambako market.