By Derrick Silimina
Boniface Matoka, 25, is the founder and director of Bonwell Loans Limited, a local money lending company based at Solwezi main market in North-Western Province.
Armed with a passion to create wealth, Matoka started out at the community level before formalizing his business. He identified this gap and used his expertise in purchasing and supply to create a sustainable solution for the low-income earners in the community.
“I started in 2018 with a small amount and that time I used to do it from home. Each time I got some money, I would lend it out to anyone in need at 50 percent interest rate,” Matoka said.
While some may view the money lending business as a difficult undertaking, Matoka, however, took advantage of a large number of potential customers, knowing that many people in communities are under-served.
Having started small, he would lend out all money at hand and remain broke, waiting for payments, a situation that bothered him a lot. He later decided to be rearing chickens to supplement his money lending business.
With K2,500 raised from the poultry business, Matoka was amazed at the fast rate the new business and the money lending venture earned up to K30,000 in less than two years.
After Matoka got introduced to the Fortune World Investments (FWI) business training workshops, he learned how to diversify in business and how to register a business, among others.
He considers Fortune World a vital entity in the district because it shapes many small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) in an area with massive opportunities for them to grow their businesses.
In 2019, inspired by lessons learned from Fortune World’s monthly business workshops, Matoka decided to formalize his money-lending enterprise and registered his company as Bonwell Loans with PACRA.
“When I started in August last year, I only had K30,000 and with guidance from PACRA, I reduced my lending rate from the initial 50 percent to 30 percent. And that K30,000 used to give me K9,000 profit per month fewer defaulters,” he noted.
Early this year, Matoka hit K100,000 as working capital and had to employ an assistant to help with collections from the civil service and marketeers.
With a clientele base of 50 civil servants and more than 100 marketeers at Solwezi’s main market, Matoka is enthusiastic that his business has massive potential to reach greater heights.
As of now, his working capital is in the range of K150,000 to K200,000.
“Thanks to Kansanshi Mine for having introduced the monthly workshops because I have benefited a lot from all business lessons taught. I hope they can continue to equally benefit more SMEs in Solwezi, especially the youth instead of letting them rely on Government hand-outs,” Matoka explained.
Fortune World Managing Director Mukumbi Kafuta encouraged Matoka to remain resolute in growing his business.
“You are one of the young people that have made us proud. You are one of the champions of the local business development program since we started because you have the ability to start with little and make much; and you are disciplined in the way you spend. You are one of the sober youths around here. Keep it up and we wish your business growth to even greater heights,” Kafuta said.
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