From Monday 21 to Friday 25 September a Financial Management Training has been organized for the Agriterra Tanzanian clients. The location was Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From four clients two managers or staff members and two leaders were invited.
The participating organizations were:
RSTGA Saccos; a cooperative from Tukuyu;
products: deposit, saving, loans
RUCU Ltd; a cooperative union from Tukuyu;
product: coffee
MVIWAMBI; a Trust-NGO from Mbinga; product: coffee
WAMCS; a cooperative from Lilondo;
products coffee and maize
The participants arrived on Sunday night after several bus trips. It took them between twelve and sixteen hours to travel from the South West to Dar es Salaam at the coast in the East. Verily a real achievement to be present at the training. So at the start it was clear that the participants were very motivated. Among them were Board members, a supervisory committee member, managers and accountants. One person from WAMC could not attend because of a last minute illness and from the fifteen remaining four were women.
The trainer was Mr. Abel Minja. In the past year he was co-facilitator in collaboration with facilitator Mr. Alex Danissen and now the roles were reversed. Further support and logistics was taken care by Mr. Ibrahimu Mwankanye and Jan Drent. The training was in Swahili language and all the materials, as a handbook, workbook and appendices, were printed in Swahili. The methodology of the training is interactive and participatory. The course lasts five days.
Training
The training started the first day with an introduction in Financial Management. Followed by the subject charts of accounts. Health Check and how to achieve best practices. The next day started with an introduction to Financial Planning followed by the budgeting process. The third day was about Accounting Records and Accounting in practice including accounting book records. The fourth day financial statements and monitoring report and balance sheet was scheduled. The participants made a Financial Health Check of their organization. The final day started with an introduction to Financial Audit and internal control systems and ended with a summary.
The training was very successful. Especially because the participants were highly motivated. It were long days including the extra group work in the evening. But everybody worked very hard to the end in a pleasant atmosphere. Ready to bring all the knowledge in practice. But first long bus trips back to home.
