Football

Predictably everyone here supports Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. I was Mzuzu’s only Aston Villa fan until this week when a Liverpool fan said she was happy to give up and support Aston Villa instead. We’ll see how far her loyalty extends when she realises that we’re not exactly on a winning streak! Football is a big part of life here. Most minibuses and a lot of cars have team affiliated decoration of some sort and every football shirt for the ‘big 4’ teams that ever got taken to a charity shop is lovingly worn even when the logo has disintegrated long ago. Mzuzu has three teams in the top Malawi league - Moyale (the soldiers); Eagle Strikers (the police) and Jukebox (the err collective set of randoms put together this season by a jukebox company owner). I aligned myself with Moyale seeing as I live close by and play netball there. I have spent 4 Saturdays at Mzuzu Stadium watching the games. It’s slightly different to the Premiership in that the entrance fee is 45p and rather than a Balti pie the mainstay snacks are a bag of groundnuts (5p) or a lollipop (9p). At half time in the local Police v Army derby the referee had an army and police guard stand by him. However this is over dramatic as the behaviour of the Malawi fans is MUCH better than it is in the UK. They might all stand up when there’s an incident but sit down again immediately when the action restarts so everyone can see. There is very little shouting at the ref or shouting at all really. All the fans mix in together and are very laid back. The Manchester United of Malawi are MTL Wanderers – they are based in Blantyre in the South of Malawi but just like Man U and Manchester lots of people support them even though they’ve never visited Blantyre, oh and I suppose they do tend to win things. Their fans were the most gregarious dancing and singing and one of them strangely waving a dictionary for the whole game. Luckily Moyale held them to a 1-1. Transfers take on a different meaning for the Mzuzu teams as unfortunately the police and soldiers could be transferred to a different barracks or station in the country at any time and will have to hope that there is a decent side there to play for.

The Malawian national side is called ‘the Flames’. They had a crucial African cup qualifier against Chad the other week. The country was poised on a Saturday afternoon to watch. I was in the market and wondering why everyone was listening on the radio rather than watching on TV. I learned later that the President had decided to give a speech instead and so MBC (Malawian Broadcasting Corporation) had been obliged to show that rather than the scheduled football. Not a way to win popularity especially when Malawi stormed to a 6-2 victory.

Malawian food

One of the main things people seem to want to know is what did I eat in Malawi. I had little kitchen with two electric hob rings but no oven and no fridge so that plus the power cuts  limited what I could eat.

For breakfast every morning I tended to have porridge or a hot chocolate although when it hit mango season there was the fruit option. Apples are very good and bananas are plentiful but apart from them and the mangoes there was not much more variety fruit wise.

Lunch was monotonous but I am got really used to it. I chose between rice, chips or nsima (the local speciality with the consistency of cross between mashed potato and dough made out of maize and cassava) with beef stew (4 chunks of beef in a sauce); a piece of barbecued chicken or 2 fried eggs (fried to the point where there is no evidence of a yolk ever having been involved). On the side (or as a relish as they call it) it’s coleslaw, shredded chinese leaves or best of all – beans. There are about 5 restaurants with this exact same menu at the same prices to rotate around. There is nice local fish called chambo from Lake Malawi but it was of my price range for lunch every day and as I always ate with my Malawian colleagues I wanted to eat the same as them.

The strange thing is that there really are plenty of food options available. At the beginning of my stay I put this menu down to a lack of variety of food available. Since then I realised how wrong I was. At that particular time there was not much food available due to fuel shortages (more of these later) which meant nobody could get their products to market. In later weeks the markets filled with tomatoes, lettuces, red onions, peas, green peppers, baby aubergines, okra, broccoli, cauliflowers – it’s just that these vegetables  are not embraced by traditional Malawian fare and so are neglected from all menus! It gave me options for the evening though although lack of sauces to eat with the vegetables was holding me back. I took a trip to the big city (Lilongwe – the capital) where I found packet sauces (including the much treasured cheese sauce) and so self-prepared evening meals were brightened. Cheese is not really an option. It is scarce and so expensive. Anything imported is expensive as we have to remember that Malawi is a landlocked country and so transport costs substantially inflate prices. At the weekend I sometimes went crazy and treaedt myself to steak (which is pretty cheap) or a sausage.

Before I arrived in Malawi I was convinced that the Chinese would have infiltrated Mzuzu and that there would be a Chinese restaurant. Alas no on the restaurant front. There are Chinese run shops and lots of Chinese funded construction underway (but currently stalled). However there are two curry joints and one of these doubles up a pizza provider. Then there is the restaurant at the lodge where I lived which does a traditional English menu including lasagne, sausage and mash and fish and chips. They are really the only eating out options and then only as a treat as they cost about 5 times the price of my lunch.

When I first arrived back in the UK I had no appetite as I was overwhelmed by the richness of food in flavour and choice. I have succumbed now though to the temptation of variety but still crave beans.

Mzuzu 'city'

I am now back in the UK. Due to limited reliable internet access I wrote the following blog entries but didn't post them so better late than never..........

Mzuzu is the third largest city in Malawi and the fastest growing. It has a population of 100,000. Now I didn’t really know what to expect but imagined there would be a few multi-storey buildings in a business district and maybe a few western style shops. It wasn’t quite accurate. ‘City’ is really over generous in terms of Mzuzu’s feel. The centre is really quite small and there are only a handful of buildings beyond 2 floors (even then there is an absolute maximum of four floors). This is in part due to there being restrictions in building height due to Mzuzu having a small airport from which planes have recently started flying again. The main road through town is very good but off it are dusty paths and there are many wooden frames of abandoned construction. There are a three branches of South African supermarket ‘Peoples’ and a couple of South African chain PEP (very downmarket there apparently but the height of luxury here) but apart from that it is really all independent general stores with a mix of Malawian, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese ownership. I spent a couple of days in Lilongwe and it felt like a world away from Mzuzu. There are smart restaurants and choices of different international cuisines. There are hotels with swimming pools! (there is not a single pool in Mzuzu) and there are lots of supermarkets and lots of roads.

In the last few days of my stay there was much excitement about town as a new supermarket opened ‘Chipiku’. This was a real advance for Mzuzu and brought a much wider range of products to the town including cheese sauce!

Micro Solar Field Trip

On Wednesday of my second week I went on a micro solar field trip to visit a village chief to see if his village would be an appropriate sales point for the micro solar products.

Brave and CB pitch to the Chief

The micro solar product that we are using at present takes 8 hours of sunshine to charge and then will provide 6-8 hours of power for a light bulb and a mobile phone charger. SolarAid trains up individuals or community groups as ‘entrepreneurs’. The entrepreneur then buys stock from us at a wholesale price and sells it on at a profit to them. The entrepreneurs often link up with microloan organisations in order to get a loan for their stock purchase.

After  a much longer than necessary bus trip (due to an hour’s wait in the bus station even before setting off and numerous unexplained stops en route)  we reached the village. I asked whether the building we approached was the local community centre. Turns out that it was the chief’s house! It was a large building so he was obviously quite wealthy but still let’s bear in mind that generally the rooms were all unfurnished and of course there was no electricity – hence our reason for being there. The villagers were very receptive of our pitch. I say our – it was all given by Brave (our SolarAid micro solar Field Coordinator) and C.B (one of our entrepreneurs) in the local Tonga language.

I should take a moment to explain language in Malawi. The official language is Chichewa. However this is only actually spoken in Central and Southern Malawi. In the North the language is Tumbuka but today,  100k from Mzuzu, the language changes to Tonga.  I am somewhat lacking in language skills to date. My focus will have to be on Tumbuka. Fortunately though, English is widely spoken as it is taught in all schools.

Back at the sales pitch C.B. was using a very elaborate analogy about a cart and an ox to explain how to promote use of the solar panels to other villagers (translated for me by the chief’s son). Another villager who was already using a sample of the product spoke very enthusiastically of its’ merits using some comparison to witchcraft that was frankly lost on me.

CB collects his sales money

We then moved on so that CB could collect cash receipts for sales as he is an established entrepreneur. He was using a kiosk owner in Chintheche as sales agent so that the kiosk owner could demonstrate the product and collect payments on behalf of CB and take a commission for doing so. There was a nice juxtaposition in his kiosk as he displayed the solar product right next to bottles of kerosene. One of the many benefits of solar is that it can eliminate dependency on kerosene which is hazardous to health due to the fumes and also due to the risk of fires. He also did a nice line in Manchester United pants.

Me with some happy Sunny Money customers

Man Utd - Pants

We ended up coming home in an ambulance that night but don’t worry it was just our 5^th mode of transport for the day after the bus, a taxi, a truck and minibus. As they were empty they picked up a few passengers (including us) for the final stint to Mzuzu.

The Solar Panel Shipment Part 2

The rusty door - aka "the ramp" 

The offload commences

Monday morning meant another long sejourn at the MRA as we waited for two officials to become free. Eventually, after stopping off to collect the Tanzanian lorry drivers from their accommodation, we were on our way to the warehouse. We opened up the lorries and the MRA officials inspected and agreed they were happy with the contents. That part was quick enough but it was evident that the actual unloading of the panels wouldn’t be quite that fast. Rather than being individually packed they were stacked together in blocks of 12 on a wheeled pallet and they were incredibly heavy. Now this being a warehouse in Mzuzu rather than on a UK industrial estate there was no forklift, no nothing to assist with getting these pallets from the lorry and into the warehouse. But what there was was manpower as loads of locals sensing the chance of a day’s work were already there and willing to assist. Also what was available was an old rusty door which we identified as suitable for our makeshift ramp. Unfortunately the rust plus weight combination meant that it gave way mid unload of the first pallet and we were left in a dilemma as to what to do. We headed back into Mzuzu to try and find a real ramp… to no avail. Karel continued alone in the afternoon and I was left nervously wondering if when he returned to the warehouse he would find a pallet of smashed panels and no people in sight. I saw him in the evening and was relieved to hear that miraculously all was fine and the panels were safely stowed in the warehouse (apart from 6 that had been damaged in transit –none were damaged in the unload). He explained that when he returned the Malawian workforce had expanded and using pure increased manpower and a couple of logs for leverage they had all been lifted into the warehouse. Mission accomplished.  Sometimes you don’t need technology just good old fashioned muscle.

The Solar Panel Shipment Part 1

I arrived in Mzuzu late on Wednesday September 1^st. Even in the first few days I have already gained a great insight into the quirks of getting business done in Africa.

On Friday evening at the end of my first week we got a call to say that two lorries containing donated solar panels from the US had arrived at the Malawian border (they were at the last stage of their journey coming overland from Tanzania) and would be in Mzuzu by morning. Karel, the Macro Solar manager, had been waiting for this news for months and so on Saturday morning me and Karel headed off to try and get the stock unloaded, counted and inspected for any damage so that we could make an insurance claim if required. And so began my initiation into the ‘African’ way of doing things! We arrived at the MRA – the Malawian Revenue Authority to find out how much import duty would be payable. A quick flick through the Malawian Customs and Export Act revealed that our solar panels fell under section 85.41 and attracted duty at 30%. However further inspection revealed that this was the 2007 version of the Act and that subsequent issues had abolished duty on solar panels. VAT was still payable though as apparently VAT exemption proceedings had begun but nobody was anticipating that materialising sometime soon (or ever?). We then faced a tripartite of stumbling blocks. Firstly we needed a tax registration number which we would find on the documentation from the last import. We went to the SolarAid office and found it. Unfortunately it wasn’t this number that they wanted but a consignment number. Therefore another dash back to the office was required to find a further number.  By now it was 10.50am. Problem number two was that the banks close on Saturday at 11.00am and in order for us to open the containers holding the panels we would have to present a certified cheque for the tax amount due to the MRA so that two MRA officials could accompany us in overseeing the opening of the containers. Karel dashed to the bank – then I noticed that the costs had been calculated on a GBP base rather than a EUR base so at the MRA we recalculated and got a message via text through to Karel at the bank to change the amount on the cheque. While I waited at the MRA a senior official asked me in to his office for a conversation. I didn’t really know what to expect. He explained that he had seen what we were importing and wanted to enquire about buying one of the panels for his village. I explained that unfortunately they were not for sale commercially and were all earmarked for projects decided on by a selection process.  Encouraging to see the interest in solar power though.

Also encouraging to see were the latest amendments to the Malawian Customs and Excise Act which were heavily promoting the use of green energy by abolishing duty on energy saving light bulbs but applying 100% duty to old style lightbulbs and batteries. Other amendments indicated the government desires to promote local production by increasing duty on imported soft drinks and thread.

I have digressed a little but it was a long wait at the MRA for Karel to return and in fact the third and fatal stumbling block was that the MRA itself shuts at 12 on a Saturday. With no cheque in sight they shut up shop and I was turfed out of the office and the compound and left to sit on the kerb waiting for Karel to return and give him the bad news. This meant that the containers could now not be opened until Monday morning and in the meantime the Tanzanian lorry drivers who need to return with the containers now needed to be accommodated and fed over the weekend.

It may have felt frustrating but really it was just the fact that the panels arrived on a Friday night that hindered us. Any tax authority in the world would require the organisation’s registered tax number in order to administrate a request and the MRA itself has a duty to prevent fraud by insisting on a certified cheque rather than cash being handed over so I am focussing on the positives at the MRA.

Introduction

I am spending three months in Mzuzu in Northern Malawi working for the NGO SolarAid. I have been placed at SolarAid through an organisation called AFID (Accounting for International Development) which matches up accountants wanting to do voluntary work with NGOs requiring some financial expertise resource. You can read more about AFID’s work here. http://www.afid.org.uk/ My previous experience has been spending nearly all of the last decade working in financial services, predominantly in the Lloyd’s Insurance Market, firstly as an auditor and more lately in industry. This is my first foray into the world of NGOs.

SolarAid has two main streams of work. Firstly macro solar which installs large solar panels on the roofs of schools, clinics and community centres and secondly micro solar which uses a network of entrepreneurs, trained by SolarAid, to distribute smaller solar units which charge mobile phones and provide light for individual houses.

Prior to travelling to Malawi I had spent a few days at the SolarAid office in London in order to gain an understanding of the operations, identify areas where I, as an accountant, could add value to the operations and to set objectives for my stay.

As the organisation has expanded very reapidly form 3 to 7 people (including me) in 3 months there is plenty of work to be done.