Richard ChongoCountry Director, Malawi

Richard believes that investing in rural economies is the essence of sustainable social, economic, and political transformation. For more than 10 years, he has worked to support rural communities to create sustainable wealth and livelihoods by delivering community-based and community-driven sustainable pro-poor poverty alleviation programs. Richard was Chief Transformation Officer at OBM and played at lead role in establishing OIM in 2017. As Country Director for OIM he has facilitated linkages to formal financial services for financially unserved and underserved communities. He designed and managed a cost-effective, replicable, and sustainable community-based peer-to-peer business mentoring program and has developed training curricula for smallholder farmers that promotes farming as a business. Richard holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Malawi, a post-graduate certificate from the
Frankfurt School of Finance and Management as an international expert in microfinance, and he is pursuing an MBA from Unicaf University. He became a “Fellow” in ACCION’s Africa Board Fellowship program in 2019 to build his leadership and governance skills.