In an area where a farmer cannot be classified as such unless they plant millet or they rear Samba cattle, this innovative woman has ventured into largely unknown territory.

Forty-one-year old Rundu-born Mukano Maria Baleka Domingo has a thriving pig farm at Cubu Farm at Kasote some 15 kilometres outside town in the Kapako Constituency.

Her stock comprises mainly of white indigenous pigs that are very hardy and scavenge for their food and are known to convert food with a low nutrient content efficiently.

The addition of Landrace bulls, a white lop-eared pig species she bought from a commercial farmer south of the Red Line at Mururani will greatly enhance her pig stock.

The Landrace is a white, lop-eared pig found in most pork producing countries.

She said she started pig farming in 2002 with a start-up stock of a mere two animals given to her through a Luxembourg-funded rural poverty alleviation scheme.

Through the scheme, prospective pig farmers received a sow and a boar for breeding, after which they were expected to give a similar breeding pair back to the scheme once their animal gave birth. And these pigs from the farmers were in turn given to the others.

Like they say, Baleka Domingo literally received a pig in a poke as she was lucky that one of her friends gave her one pig and she also bought another two from another villager who was not keen on this sort of farming which more than doubled her animals to five.

Since sows can reproduce twice in a year with each litter consisting of between five to 12 piglets, her pig stock has now swelled drastically to a 100 animals.

Pigs are generally very intelligent animals and they pick up tricks faster than dogs and they are rated number four in animal intelligence behind chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants. Piglets are known to learn their names by two to three weeks of age.

Pigs are very sociable animals that form close bonds with each other and they use grunts to communicate with each other. Domestic pigs are rarely aggressive - the only exceptions being sows with a young litter and boars that are provoked.

As they do not have sweat glands, they do not sweat and they like to roll in mud to cool their skins. Contrary to general belief, they are very clean creatures, as they are known to keep their toilets far from their living or eating areas.

Even piglets only a few hours old will leave their nest to relieve themselves. Their powerful, but sensitive snout, is a highly developed sense organ.

The number of her stock would have been higher as she often sells some pigs to government officials and to an information technology (IT) businessman based at Rundu.

Since market forces such as demand naturally dictate the price of any given commodity the present low demand for her pigs and pork resulted in some of the animals being sold for prices ranging between N$250 to N$300 each because not many seem keen on pork.

But the general consensus is she could fetch much more for her pigs with current soaring global food prices resulting in many commodities costing an arm and a leg.

Her pigs forage for food eating plants that are aplenty in the marshy area at the former military base where these omnivores feed on a free-range basis. She feeds them maize and millet husks that she sources from nearby villagers who sell her 50 kg bags for N$60.

Or alternatively this pig farmer buys cheaply similar quantities from Pentagon at N$39.

Sometimes, she buys a 50 kg bag of salt that she batters with villagers for bags of husks she uses as stockfeed for the flourishing number of pigs.

The gestation period of a sow is 114 days or three months, three weeks and three days and a piglet weighs about 1.5 kg at birth and will double its weight in just seven days.

It takes the animals six months of intensive feeding before they reach a marketable age.

Though a litter can consist of 12 piglets the number could increase to 15 if the sow is given supplementary feed and kept in a shade to reduce heat since these farm animals appear more tolerant of cold conditions as opposed to heat this seems the reason while they like to roll in mud as it generally protects their skins from the harsh rays of the sun.

Her piggery also plays a major role ensuring left-over tomatoes, green vegetables and potatoes from supermarkets at Rundu are not wasted as her workers collect these and transport them to the riverside piggery where they are fed to pigs once a day.

They are so intelligent when they hear the sound of a vegetable-laden truck at mid-day they rush to the feeding trough where they go into a feeding frenzy while squealing.

As she is not immune to stock thieves, so far this year she has lost eight pigs one of which was killed and roasted in an open area where her pigs forage for food.

A large opportunistic crocodile of near monstrous proportions patrolling the stretch of the Kavango River opposite Cubu Farm occasionally catches her pigs.

One sow she aptly named "three leg' had one of her feet chomped off by this particular reptile but it miraculously survived the giant jaws and it has recovered from being eaten alive.

Stock thieves and the crocodile aside, her main challenge for now is to advertise her pork. Her future plans include fencing off her farm and to possibly increase her pigs from 3000 to 4000 and to expand her marketing horizons to schools and to local hospitals.

There is a saying, 'every individual has his/her Everest to climb' and reaching such a highly ambitious target might as well be her Everest. She could also help the country boost food production and slash astronomical bills on food imports, particularly on pork.

Already she has secured a water pump and she bought a generator at an auction.

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But in the context of this realization we cannot realistically be talking of making any meaningful impact on poverty alleviation if such a dominant proportion of our population cannot be mainstreamed into accessing institutional credit. And this situation no doubt constrains the capacity of the monetary authority to deliver on its mandate of regulating money supply and the much sought after price stability. For the interest of the reading public we would like to seize the opportunity of this discussion to shed some lights in lay man's terminology on what really is a micro finance bank, what are there antecedents? What are the imperatives for the establishment of a micro finance bank that avert our minds to some of the noticed incipient challenges of this category of banks.

Micro finance banks as already indicated are distinguished by the quantum of deposits they accept, the smallness of the loans they extend, the simplicity of their operations and the fact that they are not expected to do asset based collateral lending which is a proven impediment that had marginalized the poor from accessing institutional credit. The authorities in an attempt to mitigate these constraints to access to institutional credit have involved various schemes over the years some of which are well thought through and some from there conceptualization were ab initio not designed to be sustainable and long lasting. In this regard one would recall the introduction of the People's Bank during the Babaginda era which had as its pioneer managing director, my friend of blessed memory, Mrs Maria Shokenu, and which pulled the feat of having that irrepressible iconoclast, also of blessed memory Tai Solarin as the pioneer Chairman. The People's Bank from its modus operandi was like an attempt to give some handouts to the poor. There was no concerted effort made to put robust structures in place and from the perspective of the quality of management, the systems and procedures and the quality of internal control it was obvious that sufficient home work was not done before the establishment of the Bank and therefore it was little wonder that this effort before long came a cropper!

Then the concept of community banks was introduced which on inception in 1990 had an initial mandatory capitalization of N 250,000 but which had been raised to five million Naira at the onset of the Micro finance banks. The community banks were essentially supposed to be unit banks which were owned by the community hence the name of this category of banks, and which were meant to operate, catering to the needs of the community and eschewing sophisticated aspects of banking operations such as dealing in foreign exchange and the finance of international trade. They were in fact not supposed to be involved with clearing arrangements and where they used checks it was that of their correspondent commercial banks. But the reality was that the management of community banks in their pursuit of the profit motive could not but breach the requirement regarding the scope of services they could render. They were soon into offering products and services that were the exclusive preserve of the regular banks. In the hey days of community banks the country witnessed the establishment of 1,308 community banks in 1996 which had reduced to 1,014 by 1999 due to incipient incidence of distress. Before long the community banks were affected by problems which arose because of their weak capital base and poor quality management which resulted in pervasive distress. The community banks that survived until the commencement of the micro finance banks have been mandated to transmute to micro finance banks having satisfied the basic requirements for operation.

The Micro finance banks which were meant for cater to the needs of the active but dominant poor segment of our population were licensed by the Central Bank in two distinct categories. There are the unit micro finance banks that would operate from just one location which were licensed to commence operations with a minimum capitalization of 20 million Naira but which could expand based on their ability to muster additional 20 million Naira for each subsequent location. And there is the other category which is allowed to commence operations statewide but which would need an initial minimum capital of one billion Naira. All the micro finance institutions must have the words "micro finance" attached to their name. Like most things in this country the race is on to license micro finance banks and they are beginning to proliferate. In fact someone has argued that this a clever way for the Central Bank to respond to the criticism of the consolidation exercise, that of one size fits all, from the perspective of the uniform capitalization requirements for all banks in the country.

Some of the criticism of the operations of Micro finance banks so far stem from some of the operators who decry the fact that the regular banks are also reaching back to open micro finance banks making the playing field unleveled for those who do not have such pedigree. Well, the Act allows such banks to do so and therefore unless the Act is reviewed there is not much anyone can do about that. My particular concern is the question of mindset! Can the leopard change its spots? Will these banks establishing micro finance banking be able to cultivate a mindset that would enable them to play according to the rules? Or would it be another opportunity for contamination through the perpetration of sharp practices? There are also complaints regarding the level of interest charges by micro finance banks. My view is that we must put things in perspective. Where are we coming from? What rates prevailed in the particular markets that hitherto catered for the needs of this category of borrowers? I am sure that whatever the charges are currently, they must represent a fraction of what prevailed in the market hitherto. The operators have justified the charges based on the rationalization of lack of economies of scale in their operations and the need to make a profit to make the sector attractive and vibrant and most importantly to sustain a going concern. We commend the efforts of some of the operators who have been quite aggressive with attracting concessional resources and we hope that the operations of the micro finance banks would successfully mainstream the dominant poor but active segment of our population in their access to institutional credit, facilitate the deepening of the financial sector and contribute to the rapid growth and development of the national economy.

The corruption in the sector is so endemic that any effort geared towards eradicating the sharp practices were either frustrated or counteracted while the vast majority of the populace whom the revenues were meant to take care of are left to wallow in abject poverty. Besides corruption, the states' Board of Internal Revenue (BIR), which were set up and saddled with the responsibility of collecting state revenue have not been too successful in its mandate as enforcement of tax laws is a major problem they've been grappling with while new initiatives in tax monitoring and collection could not be formulated due to despondency as a result of inability to implement or enforce existing tax laws.

As a result, the state governments are compelled and left with the option of relying solely on the monthly federal allocation for the provision of social amenities, infrastructure, payment of salaries and provision of all other basic needs while the little being generated internally is left at the mercy of corrupt public officials.

However, due to the enormous developmental challenges in almost all the states of the federation, the monthly federal allocation to the states has become grossly inadequate to confront the developmental problems that needs urgent intervention from the state governments and it has become imperative for the states to seek alternatives in the area of revenue generation and collection if its long term objectives are to be realised.

In line with its objective to rapidly develop the state which has been lacking in infrastructure and other basic social amenities and in view of the gross inadequacy of the monthly federal revenue to achieve the set objective, Kogi State Government, recognising the role an effective tax system could play in accelerating the pace of development of the state, recently engaged the services of a revenue and tax consultant to carry out a tax reform in the state with a mandate to overhaul the tax system in the state.

The consultancy firm, Olusola Adakansola & Co, which was engaged in January 2004, has building a sustainable revenue base for the state as part of its mandate and the state has started witnessing remarkable growth within a relatively short period of its operation.

Though there was initial opposition to the operation of the Consulting firm in the state, the successes of the firm in other states that has engaged its services helped to allay the initial fears of those opposed to their operation. In states such as Lagos, Delta, Edo, Niger, Akwa Ibom and Gombe, where the firm currently operates, their IGR has been growing in leaps and bounds thereby giving assurances to the people of the state that its fortune would soon improve.

Aside the aforementioned states, several federal agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), NITEL, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and the Nigerian Customs Service have equally deployed the e-Monitoring Solution in their operations and have been reaping bountifully from it.

Since its engagement in the state, the consulting firm has embarked on construction of revenue database through elimination of all taxable persons and transactions in the state and the training of the staff of the Board of Internal Revenue so as to meet up with the current practices in tax collection as well as conducting back duty investigations.

Equally, the firm has been conducting on the spot monitoring of revenue collection in the state as well as conduct extensive research into new sources of revenue while it has also been packaging revenue laws to explore newly identified sources of revenue as well as provide implementation support for the new laws it proposed.

Before the engagement of the firm, Kogi State Government generates N33.5 million monthly but at the moment, due to the operations of the consulting firm, the state now generates over N100 million monthly while the Group Executive Vice Chairman of the firm, Mr. Emmanuel Olaofe has given assurances that the figure would increase by over 300 per cent in due course with the introduction of the electronic solutions in IGR which was launched recently in the state at a colourful ceremony attended by the state governor's representative, the Chief of Staff, Dr. Bala Haruna, Mr. Emmanuel Olaopa, Elder Moses Atakpa, Permanent Secretary, Kogi State Board of Internal Revenue and representatives of financial institutions operating in the state.

At the launch of the electronic solutions and a new tax system tagged "e-revenue monitoring and collection solution" (Pay Direct), Olaofe stated that the need for electronic monitoring and collection of government revenue is borne out of the need for the state government to be financially empowered especially in the face of expected dwindling revenue from the oil sector in the near future and the continuous agitation by some sections of the country for resource control adding that it has become absolutely necessary for states to begin to look inward to enhance and tap fully all its available revenue potentials.

"It is the responsibility of every government to avoid a collapse of its economy by providing a conducive atmosphere where all micro and macro economic variables will thrive and this responsibility can only be achieved with a buoyant strong revenue base and of course requisite human capital," he noted.

Stressing the importance of the new tax system, Mr. Olaofe said "it is worthy to note that the e-revenue solution now fully deployed and live in Kogi State in concert with adequate control mechanism is capable of improving the state internally generated revenue by 300% in the very short time."

To further complement the new tax system and boost the revenue generating capacity of the state, a new set of tax laws were launched alongside the e-revenue solution. The new laws, which had already been passed by the state House of Assembly, are sales Tax Law; Law for Generation of Revenue from Solid Minerals and Registration of Business Premises Law.

Others include Kogi State Small-Scale Industries Credit Scheme Law, Kogi State Revenue Establishment Law and Kogi State Environmental Protection Board Establishment Law. Also speaking at the launching ceremony, Mr. S. O. Akinloye, senior principal consultant disclosed that the e-monitoring is the current global initiative that drives revenue collection system through electronic automation of processes involved which is powered by Interswitch.

The benefits of the e-monitoring, according to him includes the automation of the IGR collection processes in order to increase the revenue accruing to the state as well as enlarge the tax net, adding that it also provides a system that ensures that revenue collected cannot be converted, delayed or diverted.

Mr. Akinloye further explained that the system is capable of providing the necessary platform for needed automation of the state accounting operation which will in turn create a lasting database of taxpayers not only to sustain but to further improve the current IGR level just as he noted that the system would provide online real time access to collections by designated government officials on 24/7 basis thereby bringing transparency and integrity to the revenue collection process.

In his words "from our expectation, the e-monitoring will improve the current level of IGR to N 250 million and N 300 million monthly considering the extent of work done and provision of all necessary legislations", he stated.

In his welcome address at the occasion, Atakpa disclosed that the state governor has endorsed the e-monitoring system which will enhance the revenue generating capacity of the state, adding that the state government is ever ready to lay a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the state as well as deliver the dividends of democracy to the people as witnessed in the last four years of his administration.

"This administration's remarkable achievements can only be sustained with sustainable flow of funds, there is no gainsay that with the unending crisis in the Niger Delta, the only panacea for sustainable development is for government at various levels to look inward and endeavour to place less reliance on allocation from federal accounts." he stressed.

Satisfied with the records of achievement of the consulting firm, Chairman, Kogi State Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Matters Commission who is also the Chief of Staff to the governor assured that the consultant will be provided with the needed conducive atmosphere in the discharge of its duties of assisting the state to improve its internally generated revenue.

The project is the brainchild of a group of people from varied backgrounds and walks of life, who have come together to empower and enlighten a community often indifferent to the plight of those with disabilities.

DEEP sells and repairs second-hand bicycles donated and subsidized by the Bicycle Empowerment Network Namibia and Bicycles for Humanity in Ontario, Canada.

They charge anything from N$250 to N$400 to repair bicycles taken to the project.

The project was initiated specifically for and by the people with mobility disabilities through assistance from the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the Federation of People with Disabilities in Namibia and the French Government.

It has been operating at Oneshila for the past six months, where its mechanics and administrators provide equitable and affordable transport alternatives to everyone.

"The fact that the project is located in a community dominated by informal settlements is perhaps its greatest accomplishment. People with disabilities have been suppressed for generations, but together the community of Oneshila and DEEP have worked to uplift and encourage these six individuals to strive to reach their potential and earn a living," said Menta Rukshan, an intern for DEEP from the University of Toronto.

She said the issue of disabilities is one of great concern especially in Namibia, and when projects such as DEEP are born, they must serve as a tool to empower others facing similar life circumstances so that they stand up and fight for equality both in the realms of social functioning and economic opportunity.

Rukshan noticed that members of DEEP have merged collaborations at grassroots and political levels.

"Through their efforts on the ground and in the community, the project has managed to educate and enlighten the members of Oneshila about the true abilities and capacity of people with disabilities. Their hard work and dedication has earned them a level of trust from the members of their neighbourhood," she explained.

At present, the project has a ship container that comes with the initial installment of bicycles.

The project lacks running water, electricity, toilets and office space. The entire administrative and technical operation is carried out from a big green container that has become a trademark of the project.

"It is the aim of the member of DEEP to construct a building to permanently engrain themselves in the community. This will also allow the operation to expand so as to include more people with disabilities, who the current members of DEEP will train and employ.

"This will serve to build the capacity of people with disabilities in Oshakati and hopefully will be a source of inspiration to disabled people across the country to rise up and fight for equality and fair employment opportunities, whether it is in the commercial sector or for self-employment," Rukshan explained.

The project appeals for assistance from companies, corporations and private donors so as to build capacity and construct an office. They want to start a welding service and are in need of a fax and photocopier

Members of the projects have opened an account with First National Bank in Oshakati, account number 62151574152.

They urge those who want to purchase repaired second-hand bicycles or mechanical services on bicycles to visit them at Oneshila, Oshakati East.