LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes
A LUSAKA businessman, Leonard Njovu, who owns a restaurant at Zesco bus stop on the Great East road, is appealing for financial empowerment to grow his business.
Mr Njovu said he had a passion to grow his business but he did not have the needed resources to do so and create employment for other citizens.
He said he needed about K30,000 to K50,000 to grow his business. One of the major challenges he faces is where to get cheap credit to expand his business because the banks wanted collateral before they could give him the money.
In an interview, Mr Njovu told the Sun that he had been running his business for 10 years and that it was his family’s source of livelihood.
“I am the boss at my restaurant. I have been running this business for the last 10 years. The challenge that I am facing in terms of growing my business is every time I want to access a loan to grow my business it’s difficult because the first thing they will ask from the bank is collateral and as a small business I do not have collateral,” he said.
Mr Njovu said, “My business survives because I plough back the little profit that I make that is how I am slowly growing it. It could be better if I could access the money from a bank to enable me to grow my business faster than at the rate it is right now.”
He appealed to Government and the banks to help him and other viable but vulnerable entrepreneurs to grow their businesses so that they can help create job opportunities.
