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LAPO Made Me What I Am Today

Sarah Oziwele
An outstanding businesswoman, Sarah Oziwele, though with little formal education, has always believed in hard work as a means of achieving economic empowerment and self-esteem.

She is aged 63 and is one of the very first clients of LAPO in Ughelli branch in Delta State. She hails from Isoko area in the same state and presently lives in a rented apartment with members of her household at Number 7, Post Office Road, Ughelli, Delta State. Her well-stocked provision shop is located at Number 2 on that same road. The shop, due to expansion, is beautifully extended with an overhanging zinc supported with some tiny but very strong iron rods. In it are a variety of appetizing consumables such as loaves of bread, crates of mineral, cartons of sugar, tins of bournvita, sardines, milk, tomatoes, detergents and others, too numerous to mention here.

Married to Mr. Win Oziwele, a retired junior staff of the New Nigerian Bank ltd, some decades ago, she is blessed with four lovely children two sons and two daughters. Both sons are presently living in London while one of the daughters is happily married with children.

The poor circumstance under which she was born did not allow her to acquire good education, not even an elementary one. Her father, late Mr. Asiwugha, a farmer, died when she was barely a month old while her mother, equally a subsistent farmer could not afford the huge financial cost involved. Her poor illiterate father made no plan for her future education. Being a polygamist with three wives, he had so many children and had little resources barely enough to put food on their table.

One other stumbling block that effectively checkmated her yeaning for education was the anti-girl-child education culture that existed then in her community where females were mainly groomed to assume roles of housewives and nothing more.

With no good foundation laid for her future well being and concerned about her life. She left her parents and started to live with her grandmother in the village. Being a shrewd and industrious trader and also somebody who hated idleness, she introduced the young Mrs. Oziwele into the business of foodstuff at a very tender age. She assisted her grandmother by helping to hawk cooked rice, garri, palm oil, fufu, fried pastries etc. This was Mrs. Oziwele's situation before she got married.

As the size of the family started to record steady increase, coupled with rising inflation, the income of her husband could no longer meet the family budget. She soon realized the need for her to complement his income. With a little capital of N1, 000 which she sourced privately, she ventured into grocery business. The business was run at subsistence level resulting in little turnover that could not yield the much-expected financial impact. With the passage of time, the food business came to a near collapse and she writhed in pains and confusion. The real issue here was inaccessibility to credit that would have enabled her stock a variety of goods, thus paving the way for more profit.

It was during this trying moment that the salvaging news of LAPO breezed into her ears. Mrs. Oziwele said she first hesitated to join, thinking the organization was a fluke. The reason was that there were similar organizations in the past, which defrauded people even in her very circumstance. Convinced by her close business associates of its genuineness, she later became a full-fledged client. She was admitted into Okugbe Union. She could not readily remember the exact date but said it was sometimes between 1993 and 1994. This was after a series of pre-loan trainings, which lasted about six weeks.

Right from then, she became a beneficiary of regular loans from LAPO. Being an ageing mother, she could not recall the exact period or date but remembered that her first loan was N3, 000 followed by N5, 000, N13, 000, N20, 000, N26, 000 as regular and special loans.

As more loans came in from LAPO, she abandoned her grocery business and switched over to that of textile. When she discovered that the textile business was seasonal, she made yet another change. This time around to that of restaurant and bar.

With the help of these regular and asset loans, she consolidated very well on her restaurant business and was able to increase her capital base from N3, 000 to about N60, 000 in less than five years. This, according to her, is a miracle especially when considering the long stretch of years in which her business suffered serious retardation due to financial constraints.

It was with the profit from her business that she was able to support her husband to give their four children quality education. As she grew older, her children pressured her into this provision business, which she is presently engaged in. Last year she acquired a deep-freezer in addition to the one she is already using for her business.

Mrs. Oziwele declared that she would forever remain grateful to LAPO for lifting her from grass to grace. She testified that the microfinance NGO actually helped to equip her with life-transforming skills and trainings needed for leadership and socio-economic empowerment.

?LAPO made me to be what I am today,? she declared. ?I boast a lot with LAPO because through it, I have recorded a lot of achievement. I will continue my membership until death calls.?

Like an unrelenting apostle, she is carrying the good news of LAPO to women who are in need of micro credit for business take-off and development.

She advised LAPO management to do something positive about calls to increase its loan sizes due to escalating inflation and bad economy. ?Enough money in business transactions,? she says, ?attracts bigger profits.?

Mrs. Oziwele and her husband recently bought a piece of land in Agbarho area of Delta state and it is now being developed. She said all these achievements would have been quite difficult to achieve without the support of LAPO.

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