Jamila, Enterprise Challenge

In just one year, Jamila has leapt from being a school student to becoming an entrepreneur and employer, creating jobs for other women.

Like many low-income families in Kenya, Jamila’s parents often struggled to cover her school fees, and frequently had to withdraw her from lessons until their finances improved.

But despite her disrupted education, Jamila always had big ambitions, and was keen to become a businesswoman and make her own money. In her remote area with few formal job opportunities, self-employment and entrepreneurship are the most practical and realistic routes out of poverty.

‘I am passionate about women’s financial freedom,’ Jamila explains. ‘When a woman can make her own money, she will be able to provide for her family and the community at large.’

The skills for success

In Kenya, as in many African countries, there is a vast gulf between the number of jobseekers and the number of formal jobs. In a context where most young people will need to work for themselves, our Enterprise Challenge programme, delivered through the Asante Africa Foundation, aims to inspire and upskill the next generation of entrepreneurs, ensuring that they have the real-world skills and knowledge they will need to succeed.

While she was at school, Jamila, now 20, had the chance to join the Enterprise Challenge programme in an after-school club. There she learned basic business skills, ranging from market research to tips around shop location, stocking and customer relations. Jamila particularly highlights the importance of the financial skills she picked up, such as saving, budgeting and understanding how to make best use of the resources available.

These skills were crucial in enabling Jamila to kickstart her journey as an entrepreneur.  When she left school, Jamila found a job in a grocery store and steadily saved up her earnings until she had enough to go it alone. Then she took the plunge and set up her own shop.

Boosting nutrition

Jamila’s shop sells fruits, vegetables and cereal products, which are otherwise hard to come by locally. She lives in an arid region in northern Kenya, where rain-fed farming is very challenging. Some of Jamila’s products, like tomatoes, are grown nearby under irrigation, but she sources many from other parts of Kenya with a climate more suitable for agriculture.

Jamila is keen to influence people to eat more fruit and green vegetables, and prides herself on selling foods that improve nutrition. Many people in her region are traditional herders (pastoralists) who rely mainly on milk and meat from their animals, but years of prolonged drought in northern Kenya have led to widespread hunger and malnutrition. Jamila sells produce which helps people to boost and diversify their food intake.

Jamila’s thriving business is also dramatically improving her own family’s nutrition. She often used to struggle to get two meals a day. Now, she can afford to feed herself properly.

Creating jobs from nothing

Jamila’s business has grown so rapidly that she has already taken on two employees, both women older than herself, and she is keen to open more shops and create more jobs in future.

She stresses how important it is for women to own and run businesses, not only for themselves and their families, but also because of the way women entrepreneurs can start a chain reaction of economic empowerment that particularly benefits other women.

‘Women’s financial freedom comes with a ripple effect,’ Jamila explains. ‘It is more likely for a woman to employ another woman compared to our male counterparts. I hope to open other stores like these and employ more women.’

In remote areas with few job opportunities, women-led businesses have a crucial role to play in driving opportunity and prosperity for all. Jamila, despite her young age, is already leading by example.