Pendo Luisi

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Pendo Luisi by Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd in Tanzania. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 4 - 10 months, Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

As soon as Pendo received the loan, she opened a small café, as shown in the picture. The café is open from 6am to 4pm daily for breakfast and lunch. Since Pendo continues managing her other businesses– her snack shop and door-to-door sales, she has hired 2 cooks to run her café. Thus far, the cafe serves around 16 customers a day, who bring Pendo a profit of $2.5-3.5.

When asked about the challenges of her businesses, Pendo said that her biggest concerns are when the food at her café isn't finished at the end of the day and when her merchandise that she sells door-to-door isn't bought quickly. Also, in the past, Pendo would lend out her merchandise but found that her customers weren’t always paying her back. For many door-to-door sellers in Dar es Salaam, customers request that they pay for items through installments. This creates a huge risk for the seller who must keep track of each customer in order to receive payments. Often time, customers run off with the products without having paid. Because of Pendo’s income from her other businesses, she no longer needs to lend out merchandise and thus minimizes her risk of not being paid back.

Pendo paid back the loan successfully and her café business has grown as a result! The cafe which she opened using the loan is still doing well. She also bought stock for the café at 50000/= T.Shs(about $44) and also used the loan to buy more cosmetics to sell door-to-door at 60000/=T.Shs.(about SU$53). Because of these changes, she was able to increase her profit from about $208 to around $520 a month. She is very happy about the increase and is thankful for the opportunity to help her family. She is also thankful for your support and encouragement!