Flourishing with FINCA …

Dapson Chansa is a self-made man who has always believed in doing something for himself. An entrepreneur by nature, Dapson and his late wife established a school in 2003.

They named the school “Ndinawe Academy”. Ndinawe is a Chewa word that means “God with us”.

Ndinawe Academy initially started by offering classes to young children with only five pupils, one classroom, one teacher with Dapson and his late wife as principle directors. Over the years, Dapson managed to grow and expand his business by reinvesting profits in the school. In 2007, Dapson decided to develop his own property so he could stop paying rent. For this to be possible, Dapson needed to source some additional finance.

“We thought it was going to help us if we could find some extra finance so that’s how we approached FINCA. Of course, it was not only FINCA that we came across; we had to do some research in terms of Micro finance institutions. But we found FINCA rather favourable in terms of their conditions and their requirements. Luckily, we were in a position that we could meet their benchmarks to borrow,” Dapson said.

Dapson has since built a relationship with FINCA and has taken out loans to expand his school and develop his two properties. From his first FINCA loan of K700 to his current and seventh loan of K25, 000, Dapson has been able to buy the much needed furniture, various teaching aids and a bus for his school. Dapson employed more staff as the number of pupils enrolling at Ndinawe Academy increased. From an initial 5 pupils he now enrols 300-350 pupils per term. Ndinawe Academy is now a fully-fledged school with 15 teachers, 7 supporting staff, a senior supervisor and a school manager all offering educational services from babies through to grade 7.

When asked about his greatest achievement with FINCA, Dapson had this to say “the number of children that have graduated …that have passed through our school who are in excess of 5, 000. Other than that, personally as a family we have also developed because we are now pointing to a property which is valuated in excess of K350, 000 in monetary terms. This has all come from dedication to this business.

Dapson Chansa is one of the many who are flourishing with FINCA.