Meet Akinyele
Mrs. Akinyele is the definition of resilience and hardwork. She is a 71 years old widow who has had
to take on the
burden of caring for her dependents herself. She lives in Idera area of Ajegunle, Ikorodu – Lagos,
Nigeria.
She was until recently a staff of Lagos state under the LAWMA parastatal. When she retired, she was
able to start a
petty trade for herself by selling Soda drinks, water, children’s drinks, bread etc. With an initial
infusion of N30,000
she started her trade just one year ago, and was able to start with 4 crates of soda drinks, 2
cartons of children’s
drinks, 2 water packs and some bread.
Her Challenges
Here are some of the challenges Mrs. Akinyele experienced at the onset of her trade journey:
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1. Not able to meet the needs of customers especially with regards to complementary products
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2. No financial knowledge to understand the process of managing her finances
However, by virtue of her work with LAWMA, she has been fortunate enough to be initiated into the
statutory retirement
savings scheme and also take on a Life Insurance policy which she continues to contribute to.
Impact of Seed Grant
With the Seed Grant, Mrs. Akinyele boasts of over 8crates of soda drinks and 6 cartons of children’s
drinks, water and a
wider range of bread to make available for her customers. All these she was able to achieve while
still saving N10,000
into her bank account for the purpose of expanding her business. She hopes to go into snacks sales
and looks forward to
becoming a retailer for a community member of the S.I.M.B.I program.