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UNITED NATIONS CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT FUND Microfinance |
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Featured Guest | Lize Nhaca
Questions for Lize Nhaca, Mozambique Microentrepreneur
1. Ms. Nhaca, you are the owner and manager of a small fishing business and the winner of the 2004 Mozambique GMAs. Tell us about yourself and how you built your business. I was born in Guachene and I grew up in Catembe Zone Five. I'm a widow and I have five children. I started my business with 120,000
meticals that I had earned from another job. With that money I bought prawns.
A kilo of prawns used to cost sixty thousand meticals. With the profits from
the resale I increased the amount of prawns I bought until I was buying in large
quantities. With the money I earned I bought zinc sheeting and saved. Over time
I got more zinc sheeting and bought reeds as well. 2. When did you become involved with the MFI Hluvuku-Male Yuru? After I bought a second boat and some fishing nets, I became very ill and went to the traditional healers. My oldest son kept working with the boats and my youngest took the catch to the market to sell. With the money from the catch I bought what we needed and paid our expenses. I was ill for three months and when I recovered I found that all of the nets were ruined. I had heard that an institution called Hluvuku gave credit. I was worried, because people said that it could take your possessions, but I decided to try Hluvuku. 3. What was the amount of your first loan and what did you use the money for? I went to Hluvuku and requested six million meticals, and Hluvuku lent it to me. With that money I bought new fishing nets, and pain the loan back with my profits. I made bricks and began the construction of this house. Then I requested eight million
more and used it to buy more fishing nets. I worked until I had paid the loan
and then I borrowed twelve million more. I used that to buy more nets, because
they don't last long. They tear easily on the rocks and only last one or two
months. I asked for another loan and used part of it for cement to continue
building the house. I paid back the twelve million meticals and erected all
of the house's walls. Then I borrowed sixteen million to buy sheeting and wood
for the roof, and to pay the stonemasons. 4. How do you think that these loans have affected your and your family’s lives? Sixteen people are dependent on the business and me. I take care of my five children, my nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters and my parents. I pay for the education, care and food of all the children who live here. I work hard, but sometimes I have trouble because expenses are so high that even a man would find it hard to do what I do. 5. What are your plans for the future of your business? If God is with me, I will buy a larger boat and a motor, something large enough to fish in the open ocean. I also want to buy a minibus, because there is a shortage of transportation in our area. 6. How does it feel to be the winner of the 2004 Global Microentrepreneurship Awards in Mozambique and fly to Zurich to ring in the Year of Microcredit at the Swiss Stock Exchange? When I was chosen as Microentrepreneur of the Year I was so surprised that I thought I was dreaming. I spent three nights without sleep, thinking, "Am I dreaming or not?" I feel so lucky, poor as I am, to have been chosen from amongst so many contestants, and to be going to a country I have never even heard of. I have never even traveled north of Maputo, and there are many parts of the city I have never been to. To go to a country I have never dreamed of, I felt really shocked. I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Even today I'm not sure it's real because I thought that the money I received was the only prize. But I am really looking forward to the trip.
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Lize Nhaca was born
into a poor family on January 1st, 1971 in Guachene, an area of Catembe
village, which is located across the bay from the Mozambican capital of
Maputo. Lize started selling fresh drinks at her house when she was sixteen.
Later on, she undertook various micro projects, most of them involving
commercial intermediation between regions concerning basic imports, like
selling seafood from Catembe in Maputo and bringing new clothing from
South Africa to sell locally. After a serious illness in 2002, Lize looked
to the MFI Hluvuku-Adsema Fundo de Credito Male Yeru and applied for a
loan to face the costs of resuming her business. Since then she has been
granted four loans, the first one in January 2003 for a total of around
US$260 and the last one in September 2004 for around US$690. With the
support of Hluvuku’s financial services Lize’s commercial
activities rapidly recovered, allowing her to financially support her
extended family of sixteen members and start building a new concrete house.