Bravery, determination change Dar woman’s life

While poultry keeping is a grimy business for some people, to those in the knowhow, it is lucrative, profitable and is one of the most paying businesses requiring less capital.

One such person who turned to the business is none other than Ms Shufaa Ramadhani, a resident of Dar es Salaam who through determination has seen her dreams coming true. 

Despite the ups and downs of the business, today, she stands tall to testify how her business has completely changed her life.

Though she acknowledges that education and formal employment can improve a person’s life, she believes that people’s lives can change for the better through self employment.

In a bid to substantiate her belief, Ms Ramadhani was in formal employment for about four years and during that period she could only meet basic needs namely; food, shelter and clothing but when she turned to entrepreneurship she began to earn more. This has seen her making inroads when it comes to investments and daily earnings.

The ever smiling Ramadhani said, “I started the business without capital, only trust made people give me chicks after promising to pay them after my first sells. The risky part of it all is that I had quit my job that time, but now am no longer the Shufaa of six years ago.”   

After paying back the money, she was left with enough capital to continue with the business while at the same time she diversified, by becoming an agent of a leading chicks supplying company. She began selling chicks to others while her poultry rearing business continued. And today, she is one of the biggest chicks supplying agents. 

As if that was not enough, she engaged in the business of selling chicken feeds.  According to her, in the beginning she was able to source and sell sixty packs of poultry feeds in two to three days. But, as the business grew she can now afford to sell up to 150 sacks in two days.

Born in 1977, in Mwanga District, Kilimanjaro Region, Ms Ramadhani did her primary education at Kiriki Primary School in 1989 before moving to Kilimanjaro and Iringa for Secondary and Advanced level schooling, respectively. 

After completing Form Six, she joined Msimbazi Centre for a secretarial course where she finished in 1998 and got employed by IGI Chemical in 1999 where she worked for four years.

Through inspiration, backup and passion she got from her husband, in November 2010, Ms Ramadhani managed to acquire two and a half hectares of land where she keeps over 2,000 layers and from that number she gets over 70 trays of eggs on a daily basis.

 “Poultry keeping, though a very demanding business, is profitable once you are fully committed. It is commitment which has enabled me to posses all that I have mentioned,” she insisted.

Counting on her success in the business, Ms Ramadhani says that she has managed, collaboratively with her husband, to build a modern house where she lives with her family comprising two children.

“The business has helped us build a house, on top of that, transport problem in the city is now a thing of the past as I drive my own car and have other cars used in the business,” she says.

Nothing is without a challenge; she added clarifying that she meets many challenges including diseases attacking her poultry and thieves who at times steal chicks and eggs.

With the sky being the limit for her, she told Woman Magazine that she was not satisfied with where she is now. 

Ms Ramadhani is still aiming higher.  Her target is to ensure that she keeps up to 14,000 layers and work on her long term plan of initiating keeping of broilers. She is also focused on going back to school at least to earn academic recognition believing that education would make all her efforts successful.

“But being proud of my achievements without acknowledging my husband’s support will be an un pardonable mistake, I am proud to say that one of the factors that made me grow in this business is the unconditional assistance and support from him,” she says in a polite tone.

She appeals to all women to stand up, work hard and do away with beliefs that hard work is exclusively for men and not otherwise.

“Women should go out and do something which they are passionate about, their ideas should be original, from themselves and this will make their work more successful and easy as they will know what they are doing,” she says.

She advises that embarking on a business does not need a person to have much capital but one can start a successful business even with small capital as long as “there is passion, determination and devotion.”
Source: The Daily News, http://www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Mariam Said
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