Fomba Trawally’s story is another great one, it’s so amazing how this Liberian refugee started a business with a very little amount and built it into an empire. This is how he did it.
Fomba Trawally was born in 1971 to poor parents in Liberia. Growing up, he attended the Voinjama Public School in 1975 and subsequently the Kakata Islamic Training School in 1981. His mother had no formal education and sold peppers and aubergines in order to feed her children. His mother later died in the year 1980 and this was when her eldest son, Mr. Trawally, started his entrepreneurial journey with selling shower slippers in a wheelbarrow.
Then the civil war broke out in 1989, and Mr. Trawally and his family had to flee to Gambia as refugees. At the end of 1991 he returned home and - with $25 (£16) that he had saved and $120 that he got from a Malian friend - he started his business, Kumba Beindu and Sons. The company imports plastic products, shoes and cosmetics from countries such as China, the United States, Turkey and neighboring Ivory Coast. In Liberia it supplies hundreds of smaller businesses in Monrovia, the capital, and several provincial towns. With tens of employees, Kumba Beindu and Sons, main site is located at Monrovia's Waterside Market, and residents flock to it in search of items normally available only at his place.
Now his import company is one of the biggest in Liberia. “It's very easy to make business in Liberia. You'll see many Liberians that are doing business now. In just one year's time we were able to grow up to $3,000… and now we have businesses all around the country. I was not expecting that at all. I was not dreaming about it. My dream was only to get $500 in my life “he told BBC's series African Dream.
"So I was not thinking that I'm gonna talk about $1,000, I'm gonna talk about $10,000 and end up with $1m… If I could get $500, then I could go to a Nigerian market to buy goods from Nigeria," he said. And he wants to lead by example. His next dream is to move into manufacturing.
"My country now needs to also export products. You're not gonna be buying these clothes again in China, you're gonna be buying them right here, Liberian-made."
"You can learn accounting in a school and get your PhD in accounting but the practical idea, if you don't have it, it will be difficult to go through."
He believes that if you want to make your money grow, you have to learn to save it too. He told BBC Africa that he does not spend his money unnecessarily and lives a very frugal life. According to him, he has even worn the same pair of jeans for about eight years.
Mr Trawally stresses that young entrepreneurs do not always need a lot of capital to start with.
"It doesn't cost you $1m to start a business," he said.
"My advice to my other friends around the world, including Liberia, is that you should be encouraged and believe that you can do everything with $100 or $500. My mother started with five or 10 US cents which is nothing today."
African Dream is broadcast on the BBC Network Africa programme every Monday morning.
Every week, a successful business man or woman will tell their story about how they started and what others could learn from them.
Fomba Trawally’s story is really inspirational. Poor beginning don’t mean you will be poor for life. You can actually change your life by changing your mode of thinking and working really hard. People only want to read about the success stories of those that started from nothing and not those that were born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Source:: http://www.madeafricans.com/2018/01/meet-fomba-trawally.html |
