Day 2 - Kampong Speu Branch (Loan Collection)

The 2nd day started early with us setting off to a village called Kampong Speu to see the Loan Collection Activities in the Village.

Along the way, we saw many padi plantations and palm sugar plantations. Palm sugar is an important ingredient in IndoChina region. We soon arrive at the Loan Collection centre, where a group of villagers were gathered. The loan officer came in her motorbike and her pile of accounts all neatly laid out plus a huge calculator.

The villagers were waiting to repay their loans, some weekly in amounts as small as 15,600 Riel (which is about 3.6USD and the exchange rate is 1USD to 4300Cambodian Riel). The loan amounts can be as little as 100USD or up to 10,000USD if they have a good biz plan. Villagers do not have collaterals to borrow loans but the Village chief acts as a guarantor of sorts and if one loan is defaulted, the villagers will pay for the loan. I guess this is kinda like using "peer pressure" to get the culprit to pay up. So the role of village chief is pretty impt:)

The repayment is a tedious process as some of the villages are remote. The loan officer has to ride on her motorbike to collect the repayment every week and get the villagers to sign on the book.

It was also interesting to me to know that some loans are only paid in full after a prolong period eg 3months. These are usually loans for seeds for padi or agricultural products that will take a while for them to mature. So the repayment is not the same and depends on the products the villagers do!

We also managed to witness the excitment of seeing water gushed out from a drill! The well is an important part of any village as they mainly depend on rain water. So a typical village who has been having help will have about 5 wells to serve the whole community of about 200 families.

It was interesting to note that it is the village women folk who handle the $$ rather than the men. I found out that the women seems to be more reliable when handling $$ :)