When I traveled to Nigeria last year, I knew I would meet dozens of small and micro business owners who work hard to earn a living, striving for their chance at prosperity.
But nothing could prepare me to meet a decidedly uncommon woman named Olufelo Kehinde.
Olufelo is a purveyor of patterned fabrics. Her customers are usually women, and they come to her in need of cloth to make dresses for weddings, funerals, and other major events.
She lives in Lagos, which is Nigeria’s largest city — and actually, it’s now the largest city in all of Africa. Only three bridges link downtown Lagos with the mainland, where most of the population lives — imagine, three narrow bridges knitting together a city the size of Los Angeles. It’s not a stretch to say that Lagos’ commuters endure some of the worst traffic in the world.
But Olufelo knows that the best opportunities to sell her fabric are on Lagos Island, in Oke-Arin’s sprawling market, so every day she rises before dawn and makes that trip across the bridge, taking up to two hours each way.
Unfortunately, just setting up shop in the right location doesn’t guarantee success in this environment — far from it. Profitability is what makes a business, and for a long time, Olufelo’s margins were thin. She knew that purchasing in bulk could help to reduce her costs, but she told me that even though she had been buying and selling linen for years, she never imagined being able to get a business loan. Who would take a chance on a woman just trying to make ends meet?
But that changed in 2008, when Accion Microfinance Bank (AMfB) opened its doors, right there in the middle of Oke-Arin. This new opportunity offered a new beginning for Olufelo and her work.
“We started together,” she told me.
Her first working capital loan was only about $750. She knew that the best way to use the opportunity was to invest in her business and herself. But she also recognized that the opportunity came with new responsibilities and obligations, too.
What skills would she need to turn this opportunity into success? How would she allocate the funding? Would she be able to pay the loan back?
This was just the beginning of Olufelo’s journey. For now, share her story on Facebook, and we’ll bring you part 2 very soon.
– David Firth Bard, Manager, Resource Development, Accion
This post is part one in a four-part series. Read part two of Olufelo’s story here.
