Nevil Jackson

Chimala Apex

“We had to believe that one day, maybe someone would believe in us.” - Steven Mwampwani, Chimala Apex Manager.

When Steven Mwampwani accepted the Manager job at Chimala Apex in 2013, it had lost many of its members and only six farmer organizations remained. Steven wanted to help Chimala Apex achieve its goals of solving the challenges affecting small rice farming groups: Lack of access to financial institutions, guaranteed markets in which to sell, access to quality agro-inputs, and capital through financial and input loans. This was no small task given Chimala Apex had been trying to achieve this since its inception in2005.  

Steven spent the next two years struggling to find institutions who would work with them and says “Agro-dealers and banks wouldn’t work with us because we weren’t trusted.”  Looking for partners, he presented to numerous organizations. No one was interested, and despite all the rejection she persisted -- “This is my home. I thought if I could achieve these things, a number of people will benefit. We had to believe that one day, maybe someone would believe in us.”

In 2016 Steven was invited to speak to NAFAKA about Chimala Apex.  He entered the meeting the way he had many before… without expectation, but a week after the presentation, when NAFAKA asked to meet with Chimala Apex’s board members,Steve felt excited again; he knew this meant they were interested.

NAFAKA provided the connections Chimala Apex needed to meet their goals, facilitating financial linkages with CRDB, Safe Micro Finance Bank, and Azania Bank. Connecting Chimala Apex with NMB and Zana Bora enabled their farmers to access loans for purchasing tractors and power tillers.  Through OBO Investment and YARA Tanzania their farmers gained access to affordable quality inputs,and with support from NAFAKA, their members received training on good agricultural practices.

Recently NAFAKA partnered with the technology and management company Andre & Ross to develop an information communication technology (ICT) that enables individual farmers and farming organizations to communicate their needs for inputs, output markets, and financial services through their phones and tablets. ICT aggregates all this information, as well as data on farmers, which decreases the time it takes for providers to evaluate requests, and for farmers to receive approvals.

It’s access to these types of resources that enables farmers to improve their businesses.  Last year Chimala Apex sold 65% of their inventory (30,000Mt) to Muzar Wilmer Rice Millers, and now Chimala Apex is the largest rice cooperative in Mbeyea region, with 36 member groups totaling20,000 farmers – a huge leap from the six member groups in 2013.