A former beauty pageant turned social entrepreneur; Zindaba Hanzala Zulu, is the founder of the social enterprise “Springfield Agro”.
Her company champions a farmer scheme called Mulimi, which supports Zambian farmers and agri-related businesses by offering a wide variety of services such as funding, insurance, and sales and marketing of agriculture products.
The small-scale farms supported by Zindaba received small loans via Lendahand’s local financing partner Agora Microfinance (AMZ). With these loans farmers were able to buy raw materials and equipment.
Zindaba is convinced that small companies should not be afraid to take out loans if they want to grow in the future. — “You need extra financing if your business has to grow. You need that extra push. Even big businesses need loans to survive, so hey who are we not to get loans?” —
However, Zindaba noticed that many of the farmers in the program were still struggling with other operational aspects of conducting a business. That is why she signed up for the Lendahand SME Academy, in which she gained important notions on accounting, managing financial statements, and financing one’s company.
For her, gaining knowledge about financial planning was very impactful. She planned to take the knowledge learnt during the Academy back to her farmers and aims to see 10 of her farmers becoming profitable.
