Gorom refugees benefit from business skills, loans provided by investment firm

By Awan Achiek

The East African-based business advisory and investment firm, Inkomoko has empowered about 600 refugees and host communities with business skills to become self-sufficient.

Jamal Abdalla, a Sudanese refugee who has been living in Gorom refugee settlement following displacement in his country due to outbreak of conflict in April 2023, told The Dawn on Thursday last week that he has received mentorship, capacity building and direct access to affordable loans to boost his small business.

“We got some money and training from Inkomoko on how to run business, although we knew this in Sudan, we weren’t doing it this way. They taught us how to organize our business,” Abdalla said.

South Sudan joined the rest of the world on June 20^th  to commemorate the World Refugee Day at  Gorom camp, which the government announced it will be shutting down to relocate refugees to Northern Bahr El Ghazal and other neighboring States.

Abdalla disclosed that he received training on business model, cash flow management, record keeping and a loan of 15 million South Sudan Pounds to expand his business.

“I am working here as a volunteer at a camp but I have someone running my shop. They taught us bookkeeping and with these skills, I am able to run more than four shops. I got 15,000 SSP as loan from Inkomoko,” he said.

Abdalla revealed that he set up his first shop last year with small money he came with from Sudan, adding that his business has since expanded.

“I came with some money from Sudan and set up this shop here but I was not having enough capital to boost it but Inkomoko loaned me 15,000 SSP,” he said.

The Inkomoko is a Kinyarwanda word meaning ‘source or origin’ recognizing Rwanda as the place where the company started.

The firm works with micro and small entrepreneurs including refugees to create jobs, and improve their livelihoods.

Namaat Hamdan, a resident of Munuki who joined Inkomoko last year said she was trained for four months on bookkeeping, cash flow management, inventory management and investment readiness.

“First of all they trained us on how to manage businesses and with these skills we are able to continue and keep our business alive,” Hamdan said.

She said Inkomoko is supporting over 50 entrepreneurs with knowledge, tools and practical skills to expand their businesses.  

“We had little knowledge on how to run business but when we came to Inkomoko, we were trained things that we never knew,” Hamdan disclosed.

She noted that prior to the training she didn’t know well how to manage expense, adding that she has now gained knowledge on how to budget her money well.

Hamdan added that the financial training helped her and others to open bank accounts with Equity Bank with the support of Inkomoko.

William Ngabonziza, Managing Director of Inkomoko said they are supporting about 600 refugees and host communities with affordable loans to grow their capacity and improve their livelihood to support their families.

“In South Sudan, we works with refugees and displaced communities, returnees and the host communities and we provide them with business skills, affordable loans,” Ngabonziza said.

He said they impact their trainees with skills on how to do business in the right way.

“So far we are working with 600 refugees and this year, we will add more 2,000 people and by the end of December we will be working with 2,600 refugees and displaced persons,” Ngabonziza disclosed.

He said they provide affordable loans to refugees and also link them to the market in Juba.

“These are loans they are able to pay without collateral security, banks give loans with collateral security, either a plot, a house but for them (refugees) they don’t have anything to give for the loan,” Ngabonziza said.

He said the loans they give range between $100 and $50,000, adding that they have already loaned about 100 million South Sudan Pounds to refugees and host communities.

Founded in 2012 by social entrepreneurs, Julienne Oyler and Sara Leedom, the firm was originally called African Entrepreneur collective.

Today, the company has 18 offices across Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.