Determined, visionary and goal oriented are just few words to describe a 35 year old local entrepreneur
, Lucy Mwaipopo.
She looks much younger than her age but when I speak to her, I learn that her mind could be larger than her own age. The knowledge she has and what she has accomplished so far is something worth sharing among many.
When one of my friends introduced me to her over the phone, I didn’t doubt whether she would be a perfect specimen for this week’s issue of woman magazine.
Earlier on, my efforts to find the person I had to interview if the first place proved fruitless but had to do something because my editor was waiting for the article.
As I approach her entrepreneurship training centre on this sunny Monday afternoon, my mind is drafting some questions about this person that I prior don’t have enough background information on.
Her centre is located approximately one kilometre off Mwenge-Tegeta road in Mbezi Beach, an affluent suburb in Dar es Salaam.
Stretching to an area of about 12 km, the environment of this centre is calm, surrounded by trees creating a perfect learning atmosphere. I complement her for what she has and she reminds me of an old saying, “If you want to be a king, create your own castle”.
“I have always wished to be independent. I find it hard too work for somebody else all the time. It is true that I have worked for other people but it reached a time when I said I need to start something of my own”.
She says there is life outside formal employment system. “Moreover, employment opportunities are hard to come by these days, and if you don’t have someone to back you up, it is a big challenge”, she adds.
“My dream has always been to see people succeed but it’s hard to realize this when you are under someone else’s instruction. Successful people don’t work for others, they run their own things”.
Earlier on after she had acquired her advanced diploma in business administration, she had worked for different companies in different capacities.
She worked as a branch manager for S.H Amon’s enterprise in Nairobi and as a sales director for Iprint in Dar es Salaam. She says she learnt a lot from her previous bosses, Mr Amon himself and Murtaza Mamujee of Iprint.
According to her, these people such an inspiration. “I was very good in marketing and they knew it thus I found it easy to go to them for any advice. But most importantly, they taught me the importance of saving.
They always say many people can’t make it both at work and in businesses because they don’t know the value of saving”.
She started saving since then. She says she would save 35 per cent of her earnings. This later on came to be the base capital of her business.
She quit formal employment, got some training from Small-scale Industries Development Organisation (SIDO) and started a food processing business with as little as 500,000/= and the family house that her husband gave her (current training centre) became an office.
“Those people I used to sell my products to; such as jams, juice and wine, wanted to learn how to produce those products.
I started teaching them and gradually the centre was established in 2007″. Ever since, about 1000 students have been enrolled of which hundreds have graduated.
Most of the students are women of ages 30-45. Originally, according to Ms Mwaipopo, the idea was to train younger ones who could grow up with these skills and knowledge.
She says these women, most of whom are standard seven leavers; those who never had a chance to continue with education due to various circumstances are really doing well in training than secondary school leavers and beyond.
“There are so many responsibilities today and women wish to take part. They can no longer leave everything to their husbands. Women are waking up from their poverty slumbers and we are happy to provide them with the opportunity to learn how to do that”.
She says the role of husbands in all these achievements can’t be underestimated. “Entrepreneurship without encouragement from your husband can’t work out” she says adding that many of those who come for training have their men’s blessings.
Her husband, an electrical engineer by profession, retired in 1978 to start his own businesses. According to her, he has stood firm economically ever since and this has been more than a lesson to her.
She says men like to be involved in decision making processes within the family, “Thus once he sees your determination and fully understands what you want to do, you can count on his support a hundred percent”.
Ms Mwaipopo says her motivation comes from her mind and soul. “I like to see successful families, the ones with stable economies.
And you will agree with me that most families that are a bit stable economically do have peace in their homes”. For her, she wishes to see an added value in someone’s life.
For example, she says, the government biggest message to the public today is Kilimo kwanza.
But it is an undeniable fact that many farm produce such as fruits and vegetables are wasted simply because people have no knowledge how to preserve them or due to distances they get to the market when they are already a waste.
She believes that with simple processing and packaging knowledge, something useful could be done. And this could be done with local expertise but she adds that cost of training machines is very high. She knows that most countries that have developed economically have done so because of local production and not by importing only.
I don’t get enough money here nevertheless I can boast of being a life opener. When I see people I have groomed doing well, to me its maximum satisfaction. Some of our successful students are Patricia Manyama who runs a bakery in Mtoni Kijichi with a sale of 2000 loaves of bread a day. She also runs a juice processing factory as well.
Others are Tula Mwakalukwa who supplies her own made mango pickle and peanut butter inn Kariakoo area and Rehema Mateba who farms mangoes that are used for mango pickle production in Kimara Mwisho, all based in Dar es Salaam.
Ms Mwaipopo says most women are married with lots of expectations but fail to achieve them because they don’t help their husbands to do so.
“Entrepreneurship is a belief, one must live it. I urge fellow women to be ‘dare’ and be confident in whatever they wish to do. Most importantly they should learn how to save whatever little they get instead of squandering it in needs that are not helpful to their families” she sums up.
