Olaposi Halim is a 35-year-old small business owner who started her business in 2017. She sells staples including soap, hand sanitizers, dairy products, bread, butter, and beverages. We talked to her about the challenges she faced and how she managed to keep afloat during trying times:
“I think the most challenging time for me was during the COVID-19 pandemic as this was a hard nut to crack. Since my business was not online, I began to get fewer customers and even the customers that were able to come to the store during the small breaks in the lockdown had little or no money to buy so we had to sell the stock for the smallest of profit margins. COVID-19 recovery is still a big challenge that everyone in the country is trying to fix.
There is also a new problem in the country now which is fuel shortages and poor fuel quality. There has been a constant inflow of bad or not properly refined fuel in the country and the government is finding it hard to stop this from happening so they decided to stop the sale of fuel to all filling stations thereby causing a major scarcity which in turn has resulted in the increase of the cost of production of every other thing in the country. I have to pay more for everything and the number of customers that come to my shop has reduced and they do not have as much money to buy.
When I was first approached to become a respondent for the FINBIT project, I was a bit skeptical as I didn’t want anyone to invade my privacy and again, I didn’t know if I would be available for that long but I am happy to say that I am glad I made the right decision to join the project and use FINBIT.
Having been using the app for a long time now, I have been able to keep track of a lot of things like my expenses and income. I have been able to organize and reduce my expenses both in my business and in my personal life.”