Business Development and Microloans
How Orant’s Microloan Program transforms lives
In 2019 Orant asked its members how we could best improve the lives of women in our catchment area. After some initial research the decision was made to try and extend microloans to ladies with entrepreneurial spirits in our local marketplace. With the leadership of Tango Phiri, our Business Development Manager, the program has become a cornerstone of our mission’s holistic approach to creating a more sustainable future for the people Orant serves.
At first, we vetted local women and learned about their experience, their dreams, their family circumstances and the business they wished to pursue. Some had experience in wholesaling staples like maize and peanuts, some wanted to open a tea shop, others were bakers. Most had little idea of business fundamentals and struggled to make a profit. In a male-dominated society, a man could intimidate a woman into selling at a loss in the marketplace. Also, a husband could demand his wife not engage in a business on a whim, and he could also demand the money that she made be given to him. Inflation is always rampant in Malawi and thus buying and selling anything profitably is a challenge. Inflation can increase costs and prices dramatically making the money you earned yesterday worth 30% less tomorrow!
Faced with these challenges, Tango set up a club of 15 women from the marketplace in Kasese. Each woman presented a business plan which Tango reviewed and critiqued. Informal classes were held to discuss the challenges these women shared, and the solutions required. Tango directed that each member of the group open an electronic banking account where each woman’s loan monies were dispersed and profits from the business were saved. Electronic banking is common, utilizing their phones for payments and savings. This prevented theft and taught the fundamentals of banking relationships. The women meet weekly and discuss their successes and challenges with Tango as a mentor and counselor. The ladies also mentor each other, sometimes pooling their own resources to a team member who is in crisis. Over time, group savings accounts were set up and discussions of P&Ls , commodity sales vs. services, marketing and diversification became topics of discussion. All the loans were repaid on time in 90 days!
The success of this pilot program has been refined and replicated. Over the last 5 years the program has grown to 9 different FEM groups in operation in a number of marketplaces in the Dowa catchment area. Women that started selling vegetables now own shops that sell a variety of staples and products like candy and soda. These ladies have built savings that have been reinvested in their businesses as well as paid for iron sheets for roofing, their children’s education, and land to grow crops for sale. Dreams come true.
In 2025, Orant graduated the first class of entrepreneurs to make room for new business women. Also, to the most successful, we have offered larger loans to expand their businesses. The marketplace in Kasese is more vibrant than ever before, and the hard work, team support and resilience of the women and their mentor Tango Phiri should be applauded.
The next step Tango took was to set up Village Savings and Loans in several villages. This is a form of a financial cooperative that engages both men and women. Fundamentally, it’s like a community credit union. People gather together as members, pool their financial resources, manage those funds and are able to purchase necessities in bulk at better prices or invest in each other’s small businesses and share in the profits as a group. This has been transformational for numerous remote locals that do not have ready access to banking or the knowledge or resources to interact with a bank.
Finally, to better document these processes of business and banking Tango created and wrote the Udmozi Business Manual. This booklet describes how to set up a business, market research, a spouse’s role in a business, obstacles, goods vs, services and much more. It is required reading and is published in both English and Chewa, the local dialect. Orant’s investment in these ladies has been rewarding and we will continue to expand this platform creating an economy that will sustain itself and set an example for aspiring business people throughout the region.
