By Betsy Ramser Jaime
Emmanuel Emenite Ekwezie was born in Nigeria in 1978 in the village of Anerkoji Mpu. As a multi passionate entrepreneur, he has a chemist shop, a sewing materials business, and also operates a phone repairing center, selling phone accessories and recharge cards.
Joining the Zidisha community in January 2019, Emmanuel has raised an impressive number of loans so far, with 9 to date. As a new borrower, he raised $14 and this initially set him up to purchase tools for his phone repair business.
Within the same month, he effectively raised a second loan, for $22, this time looking to grow the sewing materials business. With this $22 loan, he was able to purchase, black lining, black thread, white thread, colored thread, pressing buttons, and a variety of zips.
With his following three loans in March, April, and May, Emmanuel continued to focus on his sewing business, raising $25, $36, and $109. Combining these three loans, he sought to purchase additional thread, cotton bias, needles, lining, and stones.
Upon receiving his fifth Zidisha funded loan, Emmanuel eagerly shared this update on his discussion page, ‘I want to say a big thank you to all my lenders, the previous loans had helped me to put more goods into my shop and also added more to my earning, l will always be happy because the Zidisha team had putting a smile on my face and that of my family. Thank you all.’
Even though he’s only been a part of the Zidisha community for a little over a year, Emmanuel has already impressed lenders with his regular updates on his businesses, as well as his frequent photos documenting his business progress.
For the remainder of 2019, Emmanuel utilized 3 Zidisha funded loans to prioritize growing his chemist shop. From July to December, he raised, $158, $200, and $212. These loans allowed him to purchase additional supplies such as, ‘syrup, capsules, and syringes.’
As Emmanuel’s business continued to grow, he was able to tangibly see the impact of his Zidisha funded loans as he shared, ‘This is wonderful, my loan had been used to build this shop making it great ever, I’m so happy to choose Zidisha, all thanks to you my lenders. You guys are wonderful.’
A few months later, in October, Emmanuel announced on his discussion page that his previous loan had multiplied his business, as he is now able to purchase items in bulk rather than the small quantities that he had been buying before, because of a lack of funds.
Most recently, in February 2020, Emmanuel was able to raise $892 from the Zidisha community and this time used his loan to enhance his sewing materials business, purchasing larger quantities of stock to meet the growing demand from customers.
As Emmanuel continues to grow and evolve his business, he remains humble and thankful for all those helping to support him as he shares, ‘I want to use this medium to say thanks to every hand that contributed to the funding of my loans, God Almighty will see to your increase in all your life endeavor, the loan will help me get more goods to my shop, and this will help my customers get what they want at the right time. Thanks once again to every body that contributed to my success.’
Would you like to positively impact the life of an entrepreneur like Emmanuel? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to read about other Zidisha entrepreneurs all over the world.
