By Betsy Ramser Jaime
“It has been a long journey and challenging especially when it comes to limited funds to sustain a consistent supply to my client,” shares Madesto Waswa. Like many entrepreneurs, Madesto has experienced his share of struggles and ups and downs in his life. Going back to his younger years, Madesto was educated at Strathmore University where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree and attended college from 2010-2013.
Upon receiving his degree, his gained real world experience working as an Assistant Manager at Tristan Marketing. Following that experience, he moved on to MBSI where he obtained a position as Operations Manager. After these two work experiences, he was ready to go out on his own and start his own venture.
With his second Zidisha funded loan, in October 2016, Madesto found himself able to purchase an HP flash disk for his laptop as he says, ‘The memory for the flash will be 4GB. It will benefit me for that because I will use the new flash disk to replace the lost one so that I can use it to keep files and documents of my business.’
Shortly thereafter, with a loan of $82 in December 2016 and a loan of $389 in March 2017, Madesto greatly expanded his current stock of products buying fruits, vegetables, cereals, and other items. He was also able to set aside part of the loan to cover his rent for his business as well.
Reflecting on his experience with Zidisha, Madesto took to his discussion page on July 12, 2017 and humbly shared, ‘I would like to take this chance and appreciate my dear lenders for the support they have given me and even the basic financial experience I have learnt from Zidisha. I duly appreciate by continuing working with you and your financial support. Thank you.’
The following year, in 2018, Madesto successfully raised a $641 loan with the intention to purchase two laptops to make data entry easier for his staff. He explains, ‘This will enable proper book keeping of gross turnover sales of my business.’
Since then, he has also raised loans of $995 in January 2019, and $1,380 in March 2020. With these, Madesto was able to purchase a television and also expand his shop and add additional household items to his business inventory.
Over the past few years Madesto has come a long way in his business and says, ‘Zidisha has really improved both my family and my lifestyle. Everything is going on right. Because of you, I have never thought of taking a loan from another financial institution other than Zidisha. God bless you all.’
Would you like to impact the life of a business owner like Madesto? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects Page to read dozens of inspiring stories of entrepreneurs all around the world.
