The Development Triad: Graduates, Microfinance and the Co-operative Movement

Fouad Qabbani
Thousands of graduates have returned, and now wander through the streets of major cities, adrift after years of sleeplessness, travel, and displacement. Some took up arms and defended their honour and their homeland—and still do. Others were forced by circumstance to carry their younger siblings or elderly parents, fleeing with them from the roar of artillery and the hail of bullets, enduring hardship and making do with a few meagre coins earned from work to provide a piece of bread for their families in places of displacement that show mercy to no one.
The state introduced the idea of microfinance several years before the war, but it remained constrained by requirements such as a guarantor or property collateral. Most of the young people wandering through the cities do not have a financially qualified guarantor in the major urban centres. Yet the village elder or local chief knows them and can stand surety for them—and indeed for all the young people in the village. But if he goes to the bank, he may be told: You do not have a bank account or an identification number, so how can you act as a guarantor? Thus, in the eyes of the bank, he is deemed ineligible to provide a guarantee.
The Co-operative Union, meanwhile, has made considerable efforts, and the fruits of those efforts include the Co-operative Taxi, the Co-operative Bank, the Co-operative Insurance Company, grain mills, and its participation in a number of other projects. Yet it is no longer as active as it once was, and it needs a strong revival to fulfil its forthcoming role in rebuilding Sudan, God willing.
If we can coordinate the efforts of this triad—the graduates, microfinance, and the co-operative movement—we can set Sudan on the path toward a serious development drive founded on young people and the development of the country’s rural areas.
These three sectors face constraints that must be addressed. The first concerns the funding bodies, namely the various microfinance banks and institutions. A clear vision must be developed to extend microfinance to rural areas and small settlements, and to enable the state to regularise land tenure and agricultural activities in pastoral areas, allowing village youth to invest in an agricultural revival. Local authorities, village chiefs, tribal leaders and traditional emirs could all be involved in this process.
A study should also be undertaken to amend the Co-operative Law to reflect contemporary requirements. The current minimum of fifty members required to establish a co-operative society should be reduced to seven individuals. A vision and a study should also be developed to enable the Co-operative Insurance Company to provide insurance-backed guarantees for financing, secured against village land.
Sudan’s affairs will not be put right unless its rural areas are developed, its uncultivated land—land we need to bring under cultivation—is utilised, and the energy of its young people, who need honest work and a decent livelihood, is harnessed.
Young people from different professional backgrounds can also establish entities that can obtain financing. Engineering graduates, for example, could establish workshops in rural areas and small towns to serve agricultural projects. Graduates in agriculture and veterinary science could establish mixed farms combining crop cultivation with livestock production. Even doctors and other medical professionals could provide their services by establishing clinics serving villages and small towns.
The scope is vast—vast enough to absorb large numbers of graduates and to become a driving force behind Sudan’s revival. All that is required is for us to innovate, strive and be sincere in both word and deed.
So, stand in line—may God have mercy on you.

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