A financially empowered woman is a leader, that’s why we love Dr. Victoria Kisyombe, the founder of SELFINA, a company in Tanzania that provides micro-leasing to mostly widows and young girls.
Through the initiative, she has been able to empower more than 25, 000 women and create over 125, 000 jobs. Her belief is this “If I can change the life of one person it makes a difference because behind that person there is a whole family. It’s a family, it’s a society, it’s Tanzania.”
How was she able to do this? Victoria changed the status quo by asking for women who want to access the loan to engage in commercial activities to support themselves and their families instead of asking for collateral or assets that thy did not have. This amazing idea has been celebrated by the World Bank “Doing Business in Africa”, by CNN. the World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs.
