Cara Eduardo Matsolo

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Cara Eduardo Matsolo by FDM (Fundo De Desenvolvimento Mulher) in Mozambique. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 5 - 11 months, FDM (Fundo De Desenvolvimento Mulher) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

The first thing that struck me about Cara when she greeted me at the bus stop was how put-together and professional she was. A true businesswoman, she shook my hand, and led me to the location of her business, explaining as we walked that she has a number of locations where she runs her business selling charcoal, but that this area of Mahazine in particular is an area she’s focusing on at the moment because the demand is higher here as fewer people have electricity. While Cara lives in the George Dimitrov area, this current location is the home of her Aunt, and here she stocks and sells a multitude of enormous bags of charcoal from her Aunt’s home. She purchases the charcoal from the city of Chokwe – each huge bag for 280 Meticias and then sells them for 350 to local customers in the area. She proudly explains that she’s well known and respected in the area and customers always know to stop by her Aunt’s home to purchase her merchandise.

Cara is 37 years old and while not officially married, lives with the father of her four children, all of whom attend school in Maputo. Before her charcoal business, Cara ran a small general store in front of her home, but because business wasn’t strong, she decided to begin a new business selling charcoal. She explains that it was her loans from FDM that allowed her to make such a smooth, very successful transition, and she also now runs a business selling a variety of clothing that she purchases from South Africa! With the increase in profits she has experienced as a result of her loans, she was able to build a conventional home and add luxuries and appliances that she could never afford before. While she used her current loan on increasing the inventory for her charcoal business, she has yet another business endeavour in the works. Quite the entrepreneur, she has already purchased a site in the central market to begin the construction of a small market and hopes to have it constructed, fully-stocked, and running early next year. She thanks everyone at Kiva for her loan, and can’t wait for us to hear more about her business endeavours!