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Areas Where VICOBA Operates In Tanzania
How Groups are Facilitated To Manage the Model
Group formation:
Groups are voluntary formed by target village members post awareness creation campaign. They decide themselves who is to join them in the five units groups (collateral/pressure groups) and which unit group should join each other to make a VICOBA group of 30 members.
Governance:
Group members decide themselves the rules and regulations which should guide them. They select their own leaders; they decide their own share values and social protection contribution values. They decide themselves when and where to meet for their weekly bank operation and training sessions.
Bank Operations:
They command all bank operations on their own. They contribute their shares and social protection amounts on weekly basis. After 14 to 16 weeks of training they take loans to support already identified relevant and realistic projects. For the first few months they take short term loans of three months. Later when they have gained competency in entrepreneurship skills they take long term loans of six months. Each loan is returned to the group basket with added value. This together with gifts etc. swells up their capital basket.
Capacity building:
SEDIT provides technical skills to group members through a training period of fourteen to sixteen months. In it members are equipped with knowledge on the meaning and importance of a VICOBA group, meaning and importance of VICOBA group leadership committee, rules and regulations, conflict resolution skills, saving and credit operations guidelines, any cross cutting issues relevant to each particular community such as HIV/AIDS and finally entrepreneurship skills.
The Excellency of this Model:
- VICOBA is a model which is fully owned by the target communities. The management costs are all taken care of by group members alone under voluntary basis. It is less cost in its management activities.
- VICOBA is a model that can easily be accessed by all the poor at the grassroots. Unlike SACCOS in which some of those below poverty line fails to qualify as share holders. In VICOBA it is different because share values are planned by group members themselves.
- VICOBA model can be used to address other social evils such as Diseases and environmental destruction. WWF in RUMAKI project for instance targeted conservation of environment and wild life. SEDIT proposals for the campaign against HIV/AIDS are already worked out looking for a partner funding agent.
- VICOBA is fully down top in terms of decision making, planning, implementation and ownership. This guarantees sustained economic evolution in line with MKUKUTA strategy.
This is the secret why VICOBA members are becoming Millionaires everywhere.
VICOBA Performance Cases:
VICOBA lending scheme has already proved to be one of the better tools for community emancipation socially and economically in Tanzania. This is evident in the people benefiting from the scheme. There are a lot best performing cases but only few are explained here to represent others.
Ilala District VICOBA project:
In Ilala District VICOBA project, the 18 groups started between 2006 and 2008 under the facilitation of SEDIT have achieved an accumulation of approximately 110,000,000/=Tshs and dished out approximately 120,000,000/= Tshs loans to members in a period of eighteen months only.
Most groups started with a weekly shares value of 1,000/= but now because of an improved income of each group member, they have lifted up the value to 2,000/=
Mtwara VICOBA project:
Mtwara VICOBA project 1st phase which covers three Districts; Masasi, Newala and Nanyumbu started in 2007 (last year) under the Ministry of Finance poverty eradication department and SEDIT funded by UNDP has performed as shown below in less than two years. In its First Intake; Each District formed 12 groups and hence 36 groups in all three Districts. A Minimum capital raised by groups’ members is around 80,000,000/=
Orgut-SEDIT VICOBA project:
The project is funded by the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT). Orgut Consult and SEDIT execute the project jointly; Orgut being the project supervisor and SEDIT carries all technical issues of the project. The project is in three phases.
Intake one:
The intake covers five (5) districts, which are Ukerewe, Bunda, Serengeti, Musoma Rural and Tarime between August and September 2008. Each district already has 40 VICOBA groups. Each raise 80,000/= in estimate every week. In a month with four weeks a total of 12,800,000/= is raised in each District. Therefore, a total amount of 64,000,000/= is collected every month for five District.
Intake two:
This intake covers seven (7) districts. They are; Handeni and Kilindi in Tanga Region, Simanjiro, Kiteto, Babati and Hanang in Manyara Region and Singida rural in Singida between September and October 2008. Each raise a minimum of 85,000/= in estimate every week. In a month with four weeks a minimum total of 13,600,000/= is raised in each District. Therefore, a minimum total of 95,200,000/= is collected every month for seven District
Intake Three:
Is expected to start in January 2009 and will cover seven Districts which are Iramba in Singida Region, Karatu and Monduli in Arusha Region, Mbulu in Manyara Region, Dodoma Rural, Bahi and Kongwa in Dodoma Region.
CONSTRAINTS:
Cultural constraints:
In some places especially in rural areas, women who are potentially better performers are restricted from joining by their husbands on jealous grounds
Educational Level constraint:
In some communities members fail to grasp the advantages of the scheme just because of low understanding capacity reinforced by wrong perceptions.
Infrastructure Constraint:
Some communities are located in remote areas that cannot be easily accessed by facilitators and development agencies like SEDIT.
Lack of funds:
Some places with vulnerable communities remain uncovered because of lack of funds.
Some vital activities and support in the implementation package are sometimes skipped such as VICOBA trainer’s refresher course, leadership and financial management training to the group leaders, monitoring and evaluation of the existing VICOBA groups, seed money for groups to boost up their loan capital, etc.
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