Mrs Ene Isah and her husband are now proud owners of a house in their country home and are planning to build another in the city. But for the intervention of LAPO in her business, she wouldn’t have been able to contribute to this success story.

In view of her poor parental background and circumstance in life, she was least expected to attain her current financial status. Born into a poor, polygamous home where little regard was accorded female education due to ignorance and archaic cultural practice,she was abandoned to her fate and later forced into early marriage.

Before she came in contact with LAPO, things were difficult for her family. “We were finding it uneasy to cope with life. We were not able to meet our basic needs: There was hunger in the home and frustration began to mount on a daily basis.” The problem was that the entire family depended on her husband, whose salaries are sometimes delayed formonths, for survival.       

Obviously disturbed about this development, Mrs Isah started thinking of what best to do to remedy the situation. After considering several options, she settled for hair styling, a skill she had learnt several years back. Due to low patronage, she later switched from this business into the sale of wrappers, baby wears and drinks which she considered more profitable. She began this new business with a little capital of N15, 000 which was sourced privately.

Determined to expand the size ofthe business so as to make it more profitable, Mrs. Isah began a searching for who could give capital. Her journey in LAPO started with an encounter with her current union leader who she said informed her about the activities of the organization.She thereafter attended a union meeting and decided to join. This was in the year 2005.  

She thereafter participated in the compulsory six-week pre-loan business management training after which she became qualified for her first loan of N15,000. She promptly invested this money in her business and upon full repayment,was advanced another loan of N20, 000.She has since passed through this stage of loan and now takes N40, 000 and above. Mrs Isah recently bought a power generating set for the sale of ice-cream with a seasonal loan of N50,000.

Through loans and other support of LAPO, Mrs Isah is now able to complement her family budget. This ordinarily would have been a difficult thing to do. She is now able to cater for the needs of her family and give the children financial support when her husband is not buoyant.    

She has this to say of her experience and contact with LAPO: “LAPO is the best microfinance institution in Nigeria. I will ever remain grateful to the organization for supporting the growth of my business. Before I met LAPO, my business was crawling as I could not capitalize it, but now, it has grown beyond my expectation. I like everything about LAPO, especially its determination to assist women and enable them care for their children. This is wonderful”.

Her future plan is to transformthe business into a very big boutique and even travel abroad to bring in goods.