push IDEA

I tried to be a sharia compliant bank, you will see why and what I mean. Yes I tried what I thought, you know talk the talk and walk the walk. Its about my acquintance a mama mboga, here is her-my story, she is carol for this piece, its a true story and not all scenarios will fit this one so also dont copy-paste, try copy-paste-edit before you paste for you use.So I met carol, who is in her mid 20’s with two siblings, no husband and they all stay with the mother. She’s got a basic primary and secondary education and has worked and done the many odd jobs in town excluding the criminal offenses that touch with drugs, prostitution, and crime, in short she has a clean profile. That’s much about her.

She started off when I found her selling her sisters grocer stand, you know two people selling from one stand. To add to this with, I am a loyal customer; I will frequent your shop if you serve me right and very much Chinese; I need friendly prices but with good quality and so on about consumer loyalty that the Nakumatt’s and Uchumi’s are so hustling us to join, the buy-you-get-points-that-you-can redeem system. So I happened to be a loyal customer and carol built rapport with me when I would pass by her shop and buy my groceries and talk politics business and money, you know the usual acquaintance talk. So one day I was asking the usual why not queries; like why don’t you bring this and that and it s just why don’t you sell this many things that I would buy and so many other customers. The obvious response was money and I was ready for it although I thought she would ask big numbers, she said as if she had planned for a whole year, “I need to have my own stand.” I would get to know later that the municipal market stand is only Shs. 300 to 1500 per month; she wanted the Shs.300 stand plus a stock worth Shs.1200 bring the total to Shs. 1500. I had 3000 in my pocket and I was about to give her what she asked, like ask and you shall be given, just wanted to surprise her, but since money does not grow on trees, I would give her the money the following day after asking her to give me time overnight to sleep over the thought and she had to propose a repayment plan, risky right! Why risky, I wanted to act as a bank I didn’t have her details, even to date I don’t know where she stays.

Any way the following day after work I passed by the grocer shop and gave her the surprise, Shs.1500 cash and just exactly as she asked for. Overjoyed to hold her self she was full of mixed reactions, this is three months ago and she has fully paid, as promised to pay it back in three months and no interest charged to her. My only condition to her and probably a joke to her since she laughed almost to death my money was not like the sufuria in one of the abunwasi tales his sufuria does not give birth, its got no life.(if you read it you know what I am talking about, ask me later about). Like expected she bought her stock and business was as usual, common hardships, daily stories, good days with good profit margins and bad days with too much rain that reduces her regular/daily sales target, the point being is that you can do it, before we get help from the white nations that are near the north pole.

I hope intro to the story is good for now, I will tell you more with time, like I gave her a phone to repay, I shared business ideas; what the customer wants plus a lot, it’s better put, so far so good.

Monday, August 4, 2008

I don’t need to be bill gates or warren buffet!

Yes , I really don’t need to be gates or buffet or just the average day millionaire to help the poor. It starts then from here, that is within yourself. I'm talking about giving and beta creative capitalism. Its already happening and will help save our African brothers and sisters who are unfortunate, some are just very lazy have given up in this race. Life itself is a race, we should strive to outlive ourselves and eat life with big spoons, I got a big set of them, do you?

What I was saying is about giving and the Why not! You can do a pennywise deal and offer a shilling with an idea to it. We have family and friends who are in need of help, we may be learned and rich, not necessarily bright and wealthy; the difference between the two colours in the world, black and white. Black is deemed to be rich and white is wealthy. Lets go on, the average help required is less than what we think and estimate, this is to the family and friends who are without any average sweet life, they call it less than a dollar a day life. To add to the list of those we can help as a sweet substitute is strangers, friendly strangers who can be new friend or acquaintances, the latter mostly emerge as better people to work with and help as I have experienced although there is a perceived higher risk, risk is every where.

If you can spare a small capital of 1,000 you can provide business capital injection to the kiosk guy near you for exapmle Mama mboga; that’s your grocer, the one next to you with a rusty or dilapidated wooden construction.

What she has is a nice opportunity but she faces every day trials (emergencies and misfortunes)and can underperform at work since if she is faced with a trial, say a sick one, she loses a lot of time, money and this is a set back ten time more than you can face mainly because she has no savings but you got some. Long story short; she lack items that you might need and she will often tell you -zimeisha sasa- that its just got over. What if, you build rapport and help her run the business, you can inject 500 or 1,000 and she can bring more groceries at you door step. This she can repay you in installments weekly perhaps and you can evaluate the risk of giving her more support or not. Try it with your favourite grocer or kiosk guy who has somewhat entrepreneurial skills?

Let me give you the buffet of help; you give a shilling plus an business idea or a business incentive with a sound strategic plan. The for desert offer a flexible return on the money lent, better than the average day bank that has become a sly shylock.