« 100 YEARS – 100 LIVES » | MOZAMBIQUE - “Often society doesn’t believe that women can be as successful in business as men. I proved them wrong”

A young woman from northern Mozambique managed to create her own taxi company after attending an ILO training explaining the basics of business creation and how to access credit.

Reportage | Mozambique |
NAMPULA - Nelta, a 28-year-old mother who lives in Nampula City, was keen to find a way to provide for her three children. However, she had no clue about the basics to set up a business and – even more importantly – she did not know how to borrow the money to start a company.

However, she managed to make her dream come true after attending an ILO training for women entrepreneurs in 2016. Thanks to the advice she received, she joined a credit cooperative and managed to obtain a loan of 50,000 meticals (about USD 860).

With this money, Nelta set up her own transport company, providing taxi services and employing two full-time drivers.

“During the training I learnt how to start a business, even without money, how to improve management of the business, how to calculate the profit from the business,” Nelta explained.
While directing the company part-time, she also works as an accountant in a non-governmental organization.

“As for the clients, I learnt how to attend to their needs, treating them equally, but knowing how to give priority to some of them when needed.”

The ILO training” was part of a wider joint UN programme which ended in June 2017. Nelta’s loan came from the Nampula Women’s Credit Cooperative, a programme partner with more than 4,500 female members.

Thanks to her new enterprise, Nelta’s income now reaches 80,000 meticals (MT) a year (about USD 1,300), of which MT50,000 (USD 482) is gross profit.

“Life has improved”

“Life has improved. I have managed to buy another vehicle and build an extension to my house,” she said.

“In my opinion, the key to success for a company to operate well is to love one’s work, to set up your goals properly, and to know how to manage the business, separating the costs of the business from those of the family,” she added.

When Nelta set up her company, there was some scepticism here and there.

“Often society doesn’t believe that women can be as successful in business as men, and for me it was no different,” she says. “

The joint UN programme was implemented in Cabo Delgado province and Nampula province: It focused on improving the employability and skills of young women and men in the provinces involved in extractive industry operations in the north of Mozambique. It also connected small and medium enterprises with multinational companies operating in the oil, gas and mining sectors.

The programme reached more than 3200 beneficiaries, 722 of them being women.

The ILO is now designing a new project called MozTrabalha, It is planning to continue to work with young people in the northern provinces of Mozambique to strengthen their skills as well as to boost the capacity of local small and medium enterprises so that they may take advantage of the new opportunities created by the extractive industry.

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