I. Introduction
The purpose of this report is to explain what I did and learned during my internship period with T and T Holdings Limited. This report is also a requirement for the partial fulfillment of University of Eastern Africa Baraton degree program. The report primarily focuses on the assignments handled, working environment, successes and short comings that the intern did encounter when handling various tasks assigned by supervisor. It is also imperative that recommendations and suggestions be given reflecting on the intern’s shortcomings, successes, observation and comments. II. Description of T and T Financial Sercices
T and T holdings limited is a financial institution that started up around 14 April, 2008. It is generally involved in microfinance activities and currently provides three main services or products which are; small business lending, order finance, and salary based lending.
1. Vision
To be recognized as being among the best financial service providers providing customers with advice, information and services to meet their financial needs.
2. Mission
To make a positive difference in people’s lives through innovative financial products that are trusted and valued
3. Values
The values of ministry of finance are; Transparency and Accountability, Professionalism, Impartiality, Teamwork and Responsiveness and Personal integrity.

III. Duties and Responsibilities
I began my internship program on 15th February, 2011 with T and T. The internship was to last for eight (8) weeks. At T and T I was involved in a range of different tasks some of which were within my academic references and others that were beyond. The duties that I performed in the company while I was doing my industrial attachments were:
Compile and analyze financial information to prepare entries to accounts, such as general ledger accounts, and document business transactions. It was my duty to record journal entries for the day to day business transactions that were involved in the company. Every transaction was vouchered manually and kept in a file and then it was computed in a software package “General ledger” in double entry system.
Monitor and review accounting and related system reports for accuracy and completeness. A routine review on accounting reports was also a responsibility that I had to fulfill. Accounting reports or financial reports have to be accurately presented for maximum efficiency which meant that every now and then I had to constantly review them for errors and other inefficiencies.
Reconciliation of bank statements. Part of my work at T and T was to perform bank reconciliation duties. Reconciling bank statements ensured that we verified on the company's cash balance, and that such balance agrees to internal cash ledgers. Along with the supervisor I performed these reconciliations on a monthly basis, and had to follow up on differences with bank staff.
Computing of company’s Taxes. I was also required to compute the entity's tax liabilities. I was required to calculate all the taxable income. At this stage I was required to prepare payroll tax reports and property tax reports to ensure compliance. This involved areas such as the income tax, fringe benefit tax, withholding tax (charged on rent) and the Pay as you earn. And since we were involved in loans a segment of interest was also tax deductible. The supervisor gave me a tax guide to Malawi from the Malawi Revenue Authority which helped me to understand these tax terms.

IV. Skills and Competence Developed
On the job, you see that everything is done for a reason and to see all the aspects you learn in class coming together is just amazing.
During my industrial attachment period at T and T Financial services I have learnt how to work with other employees, and that team work is a very essential tool in achieving the goals outlined in the organization. As a trainee in this profession I needed to constantly ask for directions in most of the tasks that I needed to perform. This also showed me how important it is to have good communication with other employees who helped a lot in most of the problems I faced.
I have also been introduced to a number of software packages that I never encountered during my academic experience. I learnt how to use the General Ledger software and the Octopus Microfinance Suite software. The general ledger is a summary of all of the transactions that occur in the company. It is taken directly from the general journal, where each transaction is initially recorded in chronological order. Octopus on the other hand is Business[->0] software that helps Micro Finance Institutions improve their efficiency and transparency through Open-Source. The objective is to make available as widely as possible a robust and intuitive MIS for Microfinance Institutions.

V. Problems or Difficulties Encountered
The company did not present modern accounting application software. Mostly T and T depended on Excel for financial presentation and General Ledger for journal entries. I was looking forward to working with much more comprehensive software like SAGE, ACCPAC and others.

A lot of payments of goods purchased involved huge sums of money that if poorly handled could cause trouble like misappropriation of funds so I did not fully participated because it required a person who was in trusted to do that by the treasury.
Secondly, some work was done in fields so I was not able to accompany my colleagues.
Thirdly, I did not make a lot of decisions because most of the decisions to be made were of high magnitude since I was just a trainee and if they were poorly done they would cause a lot of loses to the organization.
Fourthly, I did not have full authority and power to execute instruction as according to my position so some employees where undermining me since I was just a trainee.

VI. Suggestion or Recommendation to the Company
Firstly I would like to suggest that T and T opens up new a branch in Blantyre where a portion of its customers reside as it will be convenient and at the same time minimize on costs. This will also help in opening up new market opportunities as more people are in high demand of the products that T and T offers.
Secondly I would like to suggest that internal auditing should be encouraged because there a lot of transactions that take place involving large sums of money and they need to be well accounted for. Auditing takes place mostly at end of the accounting period which in this instance is January to December. Auditing at half of the period could reduce some irregularities that may continue to go on for the rest of the period if they stand uncorrected.
With the recently trend of technology in the workplace I would recommend T and T Financial Services to try out some of these new advancements. The first innovation they can look into is creating a company page on social network like Facebook which will be convenient for customers as it will provide a forum for getting their problems or queries attended to. This will also open up an easy feedback prospect as customers can speak out on what needs to be altered on the product to best satisfy them. Another advancement can also be subscribing to Airtel money. This form of mobile banking may prove to be essential in instances of convenience. Where the company does not need to travel to collect money or the customers would like to send money even after banking hours.

[->0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_business