Rosemary M’mbone, has worked herself up from selling porridge in the streets of Kakamega town to establishing one of the biggest hardware that supplies glass and paints.

Before she began selling Porridge, Mrs. M’mbone hawked plastic bags along Kakamega town’s streets after completing Form Four. She did the job until the government banned plastic bags used for commercialization and household packaging.

At that time, her husband, Isaac Lubanga, used to earn only Sh. 100 a day as a casual laborer.

“This money could not sustain our family and I had to think of what else to do. Our income was extremely low, and at some point, I feared that we would be evicted from the rental house we were living in,” says Rosemary in a past interview.

Not one to give up after the plastic bag ban, she started hawking porridge in the area and saving as much as possible.

After a while, she approached Equity Bank. She requested a loan, qualifying for Sh. 500,000, which she later used to start her business, Gentvic Glassmart and Hardware, in Kakamega town.

“After acquiring the loan, I tried out different businesses that would make me money and help me repay the loan, but after consulting my husband, we decided to start selling glass. In 2018, we opened a shop within the town and have never looked back since,” she narrated.

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However, in January 2020, the unexpected happened. The duo suffered a blow when the county government ordered building destruction inside Kakamega town. This led to the destruction of their structures, and stock worth Sh. 300,000 was destroyed.

The move took them back to zero since the amount they had saved from earnings went towards constructing a family home and buying a car.

The businesswoman went back to Equity Bank to enquire whether she could get another loan, and as she waited for their feedback, she borrowed Sh. 60,000 from a friend and opened a small shop.

Later, the bank called and told her she qualified for Sh. 750,000. Besides that, the bank taught her how to keep records and financial and digital literacy.

This helped her expand the business located along Kakamega’s Maziwa road. When she was granted an interview with Nation on October 2022, her business was valued at Sh. 10 million, and she had cleared her loan with Equity, which amounted to Sh. 750,000.

“I am now a proud owner of a place I call my own home within the town, whose current value stands at above Sh. 10 million. I have also employed people who are working in the shop and outside as painters,” she said.

To her fellow women, Rosemary advises them to come out of their comfort zone and be courageous enough to pursue their dreams so that they should not be afraid to borrow loans to start or grow their ventures.