Ngara, TZ – AJ business to expand and assist more families – Mar 2024

After a year of experiencing sardine business selling from home, and on the Fridays and Saturday market days each week, AJ realized there is an opportunity to grow her business by building a Kioski “banda” in her village center town to sell more sardine, in combination with selling organic vegetables everyday of the week. She now has more time for business every day, because Vicoba families are volunteering to assist the cooks with school breakfast preparation and serving.

AJ aims to build a banda to improve her sardine selling business. She believes it will grow her income by enabling her to also sell organic vegetables and bananas to her community.

Reduced working time in school provides AJ more time to focus on selling green vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes, onions and bananas to satisfy demand in the village center. AJ says that “I will be advising my customers’ families on how to grow organic vegetables and its importance to their health and children’s lives”. Whoever wants to learn more about organic growing can join the volunteers for training and demonstration at the school garden and Vicoba group said AJ.

Her business will assist the nearby school and farmers by giving them access to the local market, so they save transport costs and time, and receive a more predictable income to pay their production running costs and become more self-reliant.

AJ plans to request a one Million UGS loan from SODAT and the Village Community Banking (VICOBA) group to add to her VICOBA savings to build her kiosk. She is looking to create benefits from small sustainable step improvements, believing her business can give a sustainable income for home improvements, and her children’s education for their future lives.