From Kyela with items for sale

Every end of the month , Ndirande based business lady Mphatso Chaparadza sets off for Kyela in Tanzania to buy different items which she then sells from her small shop at Ndirande Township in Blantyre.

She started her business in 2008. At the time, she would buy the items from Limbe and go around selling to different households. After some time, she says, she met a friend who was getting her items from Lilongwe.

“This other friend of mine asked me to accompany her on one of her Lilongwe trips and I did. In Lilongwe, we would meet with ladies who imported their items from South Africa and we would buy from them and sell back here in Blantyre. I used to take the items around to different offices, selling. Some people used to take them on credit to pay me on month ends. So every month end we’d go to Lilongwe to fetch more items,” she says.

Her aunt then gave her some money to make a passport so that she could go to South Africa to fetch items for sell in her aunt’s shop. She says she took advantage of those trips to get small items that she too could sell, and after some time she opened her own shop.

Through her shop, Chaparadza says she is able to cater for all her household needs and take care of her child whose father is in Johannesburg. She actually states that she started the business because since her spouse is in South Africa, she needed money to keep her going.

“There are rarely times when I go home without anything; I always sell, at least one item by the end of the day. With the little I get, I buy things for my home,” she says.

Since she started business, she says she has learnt to be patient with customers who can act irksomely at times.

Among other challenges, she says with the fluctuation of the Malawi kwacha, things get a little expensive at their source and are forced to buy only few items in relation to the money they have. Apart from that, she says some people take longer to redeem their items when they lay bye them.

In future, she sees herself owning a big shop in town, where people would be able to find everything they need.

“It pains me when people come and do not find the items they are looking for. I do not want that to happen in the future. I want my shop to stock everything. At the moment I stock buckets, underwears, food containers, wrappers, perfumes, wigs, blankets, disposable diapers and drink bottles among other things,” she says.