Aida Afonso Ngovene

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Aida Afonso Ngovene by Hluvuku-Adsema in Mozambique. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 9 - 12 months, Hluvuku-Adsema will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Sra. Ngovene greeted me with a big smile while navigating carefully on crutches from her small storefront. She lost her leg in a car crash years back, but that doesn't seem to slow her down. Aida is a sweet and spiritual woman who appreciates her good fortune and the love she has in this community where young and old alike call her 'Vóvó', an endearing way to say grandma in Portuguese.

This is Aida's first loan with Hluvuku-Adsema and with the funds received she bought a variety of merchandise to start this business. Her storefront is remote, but because it's located next to a primary school and a small hospital she sees a steady flow of about 30 customers a day. Her merchandise is a variety of staple goods like bread, eggs, flour, rice and potatoes for the teachers and a host of fun foods for the kids who come after school to buy fruits, crackers, popsicles and fresh popcorn. But today most of the kids seem to be here to buy her homemade donuts!

Aida employs one young man to help her carry goods and watch the store when she needs a rest. Because the store is open from early morning until 10pm, she lives in the small room behind the storefront during the weeks. On the weekends, she spends time in the city living with her eldest daughter who is developmentally challenged and two of her youngest daughters.

The business challenges for Aida are twofold. The first is that Aida must travel by bus once a week to the capital city Maputo (30km away) to buy merchandise in bulk for the store. Because she is 63 and has difficulty walking, she must pay someone to help carry her goods from the store, onto the bus, and back to her store. The second biggest issue for Aida is that many teachers buy food on her good faith and often at the end of the month fail to repay her. Aida wants to be helpful to the community she loves, but as she is trying to run a business she is considering setting up a system that includes interest and fines.

In the future, Aida hopes to take a new loan in order to expand her inventory further, paint the building to make it more presentable, and add chairs and tables in the front patio. With any profits, she intends to continue contributing to the costs for schooling her four grandchildren. Beyond that, she hopes to save enough money to go to South Africa next year in order to be fitted for a prosthetic leg so she can alleviate stress from her shoulders.

Aida has successfully repaid her first Kiva loan! Aida used the loan to increase her inventory at her small general store.

Aida sells food, drinks and basic needs products and with this loan was able to diversify the products offered to her clients and increase her monthly sales.

Aida decided to finish paying this loan in advance so that she could request a new one to keep helping her business grow and her life improve. She would like to personally thank Kiva and especially all her lenders for the support given to her business.