Officials from Goldmine Finance Limited, a microfinance giants have said the company has touched the lives of over 10000 households in the 10 years they have been in existence.
Speaking at a function held at their head offices in Nakawa, the company Managing Director, Allan Tayebwa said having started out with a shs200,000 they have grown to celebrate 10 years of existance.
“When I initially gave out that loan to a friend, I was just trying to save, then that’s when it struck me that I could actually do this as a business.” Tayebwa said.
He said that after graduating with a degree in International Business from Makerere University Business School (MUBS), he quickly realised that being under employment would never see him hit his goals in life, and this prompted him to start Goldmine Finance.
“Being the last born of five, I saw my older siblings always complain about working so hard and yet not reaping much from the fruits of their labour. That inspired me to pursue entrepreneurship.”
“A friend gave me some small space at his offices in Naguru, and that was the inception of Goldmine Finance, as we know it today. What started out as a one-man company now boasts of 18 employees and a board of directors,”Tayebwa noted.
He says that despite facing various challenges in the industry, his spirit has remained unfettered and that these challenges have provided life and business lessons for him and the company.
“We choose to learn from these obstacles in order to serve better in the future. In fact, we are prouder of the livelihoods we have uplifted and the people we have changed through credit finance and our financial literacy programs.”
He noted that throughout the years, over 5000 loans have been disbursed touching over 10,000 households.
The future
When asked about the future, Tayebwa was excited to share his hopes and aspirations for the future at Goldmine Finance.
“My dream is to create one million millionaires and 1000 billionaires in Uganda in the next 10 years,” he said.
When asked whether this wasn’t too ambitious, Tayebwa said this was an achievable task, given the results they have seen so far with the clients they have worked with.
In order to achieve this, Tayebwa said he was currently engaging the board of directors on plans to open up more branches across the country.
He also revealed that Goldmine Finance has embarked on a project to transform the lives of the communities around them.
“For us, this is beyond Corporate Social Responsibility, we believe in these communities’ ability to uplift themselves through financial literacy and making sober and sound business, savings and borrowing decisions.”
He noted the financial institution is currently working with the Kataza Railway Community that is currently facing eviction from the railway reserve.
