Elizabethi Justin’s Triumph: “Any Woman Can Become Anything They Want in Life”

Elizabethi Justin, 24 years old, is orienting staff in her new agro-dealer shop in Olmokea Village, Tanzania, opened with the help of a loan from the National Microfinance Bank (NMB). It is her third shop, and with the loan in hand, already she has plans to open a fourth.

Success is palpable, but life for Elizabethi has not always seemed so full of possibility. Elizabethi was brought up by a single parent, and her mother was her hope in life. That hope nearly faded when Elizabethi was 19, and her mother passed away. Without money of her own to pay for college, Elizabethi ended her studies in agriculture. She moved from relative to relative, and spent long nights weeping.

Then she remembered the words her mother had often whispered to her: “Every woman is capable of doing everything. You only need to be determined and to keep focused on what you want to become.”

The young woman found a sales job in a veterinary shop, and diligently saved her earnings. After two years she had amassed one million Tanzanian shillings (Tshs), the equivalent of US$955.

“This is when I began my life as an entrepreneur,” Elizabethi recalls.

She opened her first Agro shop in 2006, and in 2008, she signed up with CNFA/TAGMARK (The Tanzania Agro-Dealer Strengthening Program, a grantee of AGRA) for business training.

From there, she used new skills to identify her customer base: farmers aged 55-70 years, who were travelling a distance of about 40km to get agro-service. With that insight, she decided to open a new shop that would serve four villages, and decrease the travel distance of her customers.

To continue building on her success, Elizabethi now needed access to capital. But in Tanzania, as in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, most banks refused to lend to small-scale agricultural enterprises, and private lending schemes typically charged interest of up to 48 percent.

Then Elizabethi heard about the NMB program, which was offering certified agro-dealers loans of up to eight million Tshs on affordable terms.

The loans were the result of AGRA’s innovative financing program, in which AGRA and Financial Sector Deepening Trust had posted a loan guarantee fund of $2.1 million that leveraged US$10 million from NMB for low-interest agricultural loans. Hundreds of agro-dealers were applying, and using the loans to supply their shops, serving thousands of farmers across the country.

Elizabethi decided to apply.

“It was not easy,” she recalls. “The bank personnel almost rejected my application saying that I am a woman, and I am too young to be trusted with such an amount of money. They doubted I would refund it back.”

Elizabethi went to the branch manager and argued her case. They put her off, but she persisted until she finally received her loan. She invested it wisely – buying the improved seeds, fertilizers, and other farm inputs her customers needed to raise the productivity of their small farms.

Then, in half the allotted time, she had repaid her debt in full. After just six months, she was debt-free.

Then, in half the allotted time, she had repaid her debt in full. After just six months, she was debt-free.

Sometimes, Elizabethi takes her four-year-old daughter with her to visit the shops. They lounge for a moment in a cool storage room, stacked with supplies. Elizabethi has high hopes for her daughter.

“I am whispering to her everyday that every woman can become anything they want in life,” she says.