Micro-loans to rural Women entrepreneurs in Uganda

Name: Josephine
Age: 57
Location: Izinga, Hoima District, Uganda
Occupation: Grocery Store Owner and farmer
Family: Married with 2 children (ages 25 and 27), lives with 4 grandchildren (ages 3, 4, and 6)
Education: Certificate
Business: Runs a small grocery store selling daily essentials (maize flour, cassava flour, sugar, rice, eggs, vegetables, cooking oil, salt, soap, soda, snacks, sweets, biscuits, Vaseline, toothpaste, toothbrushes, pens, tea leaves, pencils, spices and laundry detergents.)

Background: Josephine grew up in Kihomboza, a small farming village in Hoima. She is a trained primary teacher who resigned from the profession 15 years ago after her husband fell very sick. She is now the only breadwinner of the family. She resorted to farming and started a grocery shop 10 years ago as a source of income. Josephine joined the Village Saving and Loan Association (VSLA) to save some money from her little income and be able to get small loans to increase stock in her store. Her store is located along the road to the next village which gives her a high chance of getting customers and buying stock from local hawkers at wholesale price. 

Business goals:

• To grow her grocery business and increase inventory to meet customer demand.
• To add more products, such as household items and bulk grains.
• To provide financial support to take care of her sick husband and better education opportunities for her grandchildren with the income from her store.

Challenges:

• While Josephine has benefited from small VSLA loans, she struggles to access larger, more formal sources of credit due to lack of collateral or financial history.
• Since she relies on goods from nearby towns and hawkers, transportation issues and fluctuating market prices affect her ability to keep her store stocked consistently.
• Josephine has some literacy and numeracy skills but lacks formal business training in areas such as bookkeeping, budgeting, and customer service.
• Competition from other women in the trading centre who also run small businesses, offering similar products, making it difficult to stand out.

Balancing Work and Family: Josephine manages the store during the day, but she also has household chores, garden work, her husband and grandchildren to care of - these limit the time she can dedicate to growing the business.

Motivations:

• Josephine is proud to contribute to her household income and is motivated to grow her business to achieve financial security.
• Josephine wants to ensure her grandchildren can complete their education since her children are secondary school dropouts and are not financially stable to fully take care of their children without Josephine’s support.
• She sees her grocery business as a key to funding their school fees and medical care for her husband.

Use of Technology:

• Josephine owns a small phone, which she uses to communicate with suppliers and customers. 
• While she’s seen smartphones and how they improve connectivity, Josephine doesn't have enough money to invest in a smartphone and doesn’t see the immediate benefit for her business.

Aspirations:

• To become financially stable enough to build a better home for her family.
• To expand her store and perhaps hire one young person from the village to help her run the business.
• To gain more business skills, especially in areas such as managing finances, negotiating with suppliers, increasing stock and increasing profit margins.

Day in the life: Josephine wakes up early to prepare her grandchildren for school. She goes to the garden to grow food crops to feed her family. She returns home around 11:00 AM. After finishing her household chores, she prepares meals that act as breakfast and lunch, she feeds and cleans her husband. Takes her four goats to the field and collects pasture for rabbits and a pig. She opens her grocery store by 2:00 PM. Throughout the rest of the day, she manages customers, buys goods from wholesalers who hawker goods in the village, and often sends Boda Boda (motorcycle taxis) to buy bulk stock from Hoima town. By 8:00 PM in the evening, she closes the shop and returns home to tend to her family’s evening meal and animals. Evenings on the second and last Fridays of the month, she attends her VSLA meetings, where she discusses savings plans with other women in the community.

How the project is helping:

• Josephine is benefiting greatly from entrepreneurship training in record-keeping, inventory management, and business planning offered by the project
• With more structured support through the microloans project, Josephine could expand her store’s inventory and increase her profit margins.
• Josephine is receiving regular mentoring and guidance on business growth strategies that will help her overcome challenges, such as managing competition and balancing family life with work.
• Through the project, Josephine will be introduced to basic digital tools or training on mobile money and online business transactions could help streamline her operations.
• After graduation, Josephine will receive a larger loan to invest into her grocery store