Entrepreneurs: Inspiring Stories

Lize Nhaca

Lize Nhaca of Catembe, Mozambique, owns a small fishing enterprise. In 2002, Nhaca, a widow with five children, was unable to work for three months due to illness. When she recovered, many of her fishing nets were ruined. Nhaca decided to apply for a micro loan to cover the costs of resuming her business. Since then she has been granted four loans, the first one in January 2003 for approximately US$260 and the most recent in September 2004 for around US$690. With these small loans, Nhaca’s commercial activities recovered allowing her to support her extended family of 16 members and start building a new concrete house. In addition, her company has generated four permanent job positions, seven temporary ones, and supports the business of self-employed women that buy her fish to sell in Catembe and Maputo. “The money has given me many benefits,” Nhaca says. “If not for those loans, when I recovered from my illness and found that the nets were ruined, I wouldn’t have had the money to buy new nets or repair the boats.”

Fatima Serwoni

Fatima Serwoni lives in the village of Manunsi in Uganda, and runs a small store, selling food and household items. She has built her business with the help of a series of loans from a local microfinance institution. Since becoming a client, she has increased her weekly income by 80% and has consistently paid the school fees for her four children. With her most recent loan, Serwoni purchased a mobile phone kit to start a pay phone business, becoming one of the first “village phone operators” of MTN Village Phone, an initiative of Grameen Foundation USA and MTN Uganda. The fact that her village has no electricity has not stopped her. Serwoni uses a car battery to charge her phone. With the nearest public pay phone more than 4 kilometers away, people in Serwoni’s community are happy to have convenient and affordable telephone access for the first time. Fatima Serwoni’s new Village Phone business has had the added benefit of attracting people to her store and generating even greater profits to share with her family.

Mbanda

When the organization Aid to Artisans (ATA) first met Mbanda (born Jose Rodrigues Fumo), he was carving a piece of wood under a tree. Originally a sole businessman and artist, Mbanda now employs four other artisans in his workshop. ATA encourages micro enterprise by placing orders with small entrepreneurs like Mbanda, and by sending 50% of the purchase price up-front for the artisan’s use as working capital. In addition to sandalwood vases, his most successful product is a carved sandalwood statue of a face with streaming hair atop a standing figure, which has been featured in major design magazines. Mbanda leaves the front of the statue in its rough-hewn state and polishes the back to a lustrous patina. “I sell more now,” says Mbanda. “I can work more, knowing that I am going to sell my product. My life has improved because of the large international orders that I am receiving. I earn a lot more money than I did selling in the local market!”

Fortunata Maria de Aliaga

Fortunata Maria de Aliaga has sold flowers from a La Paz, Bolivia, street corner for as long as anyone can remember. When her children were young, she worked long days to give them the opportunity she never had — the chance to go to school. There were days when she barely had enough money to set up shop. Then, 15 years ago, Aliaga learned about Banco Sol, a bank affiliated with ACCION International. Together with three other women, she qualified for a loan that allowed her to buy flowers in bulk at a much cheaper rate. With a strong repayment record, Aliaga was approved for larger loans and began to borrow on her own. Today, Aliaga is proud to report that she put her savings to good use. “All three of my children finished school,” she beams. “And I even had money left to make some improvements to my house!”

Phom Hun

Phom Hun never had property of her own. She lived in a thatched-roof house along the fence of a pagoda in a small village in Cambodia. No one, not even private moneylenders, dared to give her a loan. In 1998, however, Hun approached ACLEDA Bank and explained her unfortunate situation. She told them about her idea to start a noodle business and they offered her a loan of US$25. Only a few years later, Hun’s profits enabled her to buy a small piece of land to build a wooden house with a metal sheet roof, a luxury she could never afford before. She is still an active borrower of ACLEDA Bank; she has since had 10 subsequent loans. ACLEDA Bank gave Hun a chance at a new and successful enterprise — and she capitalized and thrived due to hard work and a strong repayment history.

Michaela Walsh

Michaela Walsh quietly dared to go where most women in the 1950s and 1960s did not. She was the forerunner in microfinance with poor women with her founding of Women’s World Banking (WWB) in 1979. After attending college at night in New York City, Walsh rose up in the ranks of the male-dominated financial industry, opening a Merrill Lynch office in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1960. She then moved to London, working in international finance before returning to New York where she worked on one of the first hedge funds. It was during this period that she realized she could get funding for women to set up women-run banks and financial institutions. She founded Women’s World Banking, which provides support, advice, training, and information to a global network of 54 microfinance institutions and banks in 30 countries worldwide. WWB network members offer credit and other financial services directly to 11 million poor entrepreneurs, 70% of them women. Walsh saw the potential to aid all women on a global level several years prior. She is considered a leader in microfinance institutions (MFIs).