Ramla Ally

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to RAMLA ALLY by Youth Self Employment Foundation in Tanzania. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 3 - 6 months, Youth Self Employment Foundation will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Ramla Ally’s home goods store is doing well, in part because of the increased stock she was able to purchase with the money from her loan. I had a chance to visit with Ramla when she came to make her weekly loan payment at the Kigamboni community bank meeting place in city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Ramla used her loan money to purchase a larger quantity of goods for her store in order to get a good price at wholesale. She sells plastic home wares including plates, bowls and cups. Because she bought a large quantity in wholesale, she can sell her items for a good 50% profit margin. She typically sells one plate for 900 Tanzanian Shillings or about 65 cents (1,200 TSH = $1 USD).

Before her loan, Ramla would face stock shortages and lose valuable customers when they came to her store looking for specific items. She has now been able to keep her items in stock by continuing to make larger purchases of her items from the wholesaler. These has kept her customers happy and coming back.

Ramla is 34 years old and married with three children. Her husband works in the store with Ramla, so the business supports the whole family. The additional income that she has received from the business has been used to pay for school fees and supplies for her children. Her family also saved enough money to buy a plot of land. She is now saving so that her family can build a house on the land.

Microfinance is playing an important role in Tanzania, a country that adopted a free market economy only 15 years ago after years of working under a socialist system. Since that time the financial sector has become more liberalized and created more opportunities for entrepreneurs. As Tanzanians, like Ramla, continue to embrace the new culture that rewards hard work and entrepreneurial spirit they need an avenue to borrow money to fund their businesses. Because a formal banking system is not offered to these entrepreneurs, the Microfinance sector has been critical in helping them achieve their goals.