Creating Employment through Soap Making

• 09 Jan 2020

Hope Oswald Rweyemamu, 22 years, runs a small business in Mwananyamala, Dar es Salaam, that makes soap and beauty products. Hope started her business because she didn’t see any other choice. Even though she had passed her form four exams, she was unable to continue to form five because her parents could not afford the school fees. She was always fascinated by natural products and saw an opportunity in soap as it’s a product that everyone uses daily. So in 2016, she started her soap-making business from home, focusing on natural products. Initially, she did not have much direction for her business, she just did it as an activity to bring her an income. She faced many challenges during that time. Her business was not registered and many people did not trust her products because she was producing them at home. A few months after starting her business she joined the VIA Jiandalie Ajira program run by the Tanzania Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness Centre (TECC). The program opened her eyes on how to run a business. She realized she did not know how to brand, or do proper marketing or even manage her business properly. Through the VIA Jiandalie Ajira program, Hope received life skills and business training, mentorship and linkages to various training and regulatory institutions. The program linked her to the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO) where she learned how to properly produce soap and related products like shampoo, conditioner, lotion, etc. She got linked to the Kinondoni Municipality where she got premises to set up her production and also managed to register her business as a legal entity. The program linked her to a mentor who helped her to increase her production capacity from 50 bars of soap per month to 1,000 bars of soap in two weeks. “The biggest benefit I have received from the program is a change of mind-set. I never thought I could employ myself, but not only have I created employment for myself, I have also employed others,” she said. She also changed the way she saw her business. She had been regarding her business as something she does on and off, something that she would try and if it fails, she will try another see more on hope's story here.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5575E9VpczI&list=PLeyEfleWcHAjQdgNDhzik8vi3rw2R1Ozt&index=1