Visiting Zambia

MicroLoan Foundation doesn’t just work in Malawi, but have two (soon to be three) branches in Zambia too, so I headed over there to see what the issues in relation to Social Performance Management are. I was looking at whether the team there are working with the poorest, how they do their training and what can be done to address client exit. I came away feeling extremely positive: though poverty levels seem to be less severe than in Malawi, the team are being proactive in working with the poorest, the training is thorough and effective, and exit rates are being kept down by good communications between staff and clients, and by responding to clients when they raise a complaint. For example, clients said that they weren’t keen on fortnightly repayments, so the Zambian team have reacted by piloting a 3-weekly repayment loan product.

Otherwise, I was well looked after at a small local guesthouse just 5 minutes walk from the office, where the staff were delighted to learn that I could speak (a few!) words of Chichewa, which is very similar to Nyanja spoken in Zambia. They therefore took it upon themselves to create dictionaries for me to further my education and made sure I was fed the tastiest Zambian chicken and Nsima (local staple)!