The Money Trail: A Foreigner's Guide to Bank Accounts in Madagascar

Now that Trano Mirary was official, the next order of business was to open a bank account. The only way to receive our winnings from the BYU social venture competition was to transfer them directly to an account in Madagascar. We couldn't get started without those funds.

We'd love to say that our ridiculous paperwork saga was over, but it was only the beginning. After months of signing hundreds of documents, we discovered that the bank required a notarized copy of all those same incorporation documents. To make matters worse, companies must provide copies of the owners' residency cards. Michael O'Day, the company's only foreign owner didn't have one, and residency cards are notoriously difficult to obtain.

A Resident Card in Madagascar requires a long-term VISA, which takes a significant amount of time in a third-world country. Even after the VISA is approved, a foreigner must assemble a pile of documents similar to the one we had just conquered to make Trano Mirary an official company. Michael's hands cramped at the very thought of going through that many signatures again. Even after all the documents are submitted and the application approved, the waiting process takes months, sometimes even up to a year.

We didn't have that kind of time.

Fortunately, bureaucracy worked in our favor – for once -- when we met the Prefecture of Police. After a three-year-long political crisis had cut off all foreign aid and seventy percent of the government budget, the disgruntled Prefecture of Police decided to start his own side-business expediting foreign VISAs and residency card applications. As with all such side-businesses, there was a large fee involved, but it was worth it because Michael had his Resident Card within a week.

With this last piece of the puzzle, we applied for a bank account with the Bank of Africa, which is much more efficient in processing applications. In less than an hour, we had an account and BYU was ready to transfer our funds. Then things slowed down again.

The transfer was initiated on a Friday, and Bank of Africa would normally require the entire following week to process the transfer. Not a problem, except that Monday was the 25th of June, Madagascar's Independence Day and a bank holiday. Between free concerts to celebrate the holiday, and annual protests demanding an overdue election, the banks decided to close an extra day, pushing out the date of our transfer even further. Then we discovered that all transfers must go through the country's central bank for approval, adding yet another day to the transfer process. And once it was ready we weren't able to make it to the bank until the next day.

Finally, two weeks after starting the transfer process, and six weeks after Michael O'Day arrived in Madagascar, the much needed funds were finally ready to use.

Another victory for Trano Mirary, but it's not time to celebrate yet. The next task: navigating the mortgage process.