For a successful business of selling fresh vegetables at Mlango wa chuma market in Tanga you need capital, space in the market, good quality produce from farmers and, customers. One of these ingredients is scarce for most traders in the market. Capital, perplexingly.  

Vegetable sellers in Mlango wa Chuma and Mgandini Markets struggle with capital not only because their merchandise is perishable but also, they lacked essential financial skills.

Big picture
It is estimated that Tanzania's SME sector consists of over 3 million enterprises that contribute 27% of the overall GDP. More than half are owned by women. They are pestered with weak business development services, high informality, weak governance and capital. Community taste—and demand— for fresh farm produce hook vegetable traders  at Mlango wa Chuma to a one-day business cycle—buy fresh produce at sunrise dusk, sort, sell, buy your domestic needs, tomorrow—repeat. Whenever an emergency gutted cash flow most traders floundered without cash to buy fresh produce the next morning.

“I had no choice except borrowing from loan sharks. High interests dragged on. I was on a cliff every day,” says Lailat Awadh, a vegetables trader at Mlango wa Chuma. The Building Bridges program in Tanzania found that 15 out of 20 SMEs rely on personal or family sources for loans. With hundreds of small and medium businesses in urban areas in Tanzania straddling partial growth and collapse cities could not be inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

With funding from the European Union in the Inclu-cities project, Rikolto East Africa set up and facilitated partnership with Tanga City Council to unite stakeholders that offer financial and non-financial services to (food) entrepreneurs in and around the city. Rikolto identified and invited small scale traders and imparted knowledge about financial management skills and business growth pathways. From Mlango wa Chuma 17 traders participated; Mgandini sent 23 traders.

Formation of saving groups
Rikolto, did not form groups for them or placed a condition for them to group up to get some support. “After the training I asked folks that participated, why don’t we start a saving group to help ourselves with building discipline for saving?” says Awadh. Five agreed right away to set up Mlango wa chuma Community Microfinance Group,  obliging each member to deposit saving every day every day and committing to direct savings to grow their businesses. In eight months, their saving has grown to more than 8m/- by August 2025.

These results resonate with Inclu-cities objective to work with RIKOLTO in supporting formation of medium and small-scale enterprises   as well as needs-based training to business owners. “The fact that these traders direct their savings to grow their businesses is evidence that they are applying the knowledge they received in the trainings they participated,” says Kikolo Mwakasungula, Inclu-cities Project Manager.

Growth of businesses

Every member of the group has a rosy story about the positive changes in their businesses. None borrows from loan sharks anymore. None buys produce on credit. Each has financial means to diversify in terms of produce they buy and sell.

“Because I pay cash, I have power to choose only the best produce,” They also initiated another saving fund for buying key domestic needs for their homes at wholesale prices. “It saves me a lot of money on home supplies and helps me save more to focus on the business,” says Bakari Harid Mpanga, a trader and now vice chairperson the savings group.

Spread of a good practice
Traders that initially were hesitant to join the saving group have also organised into a savings group—with 35 members. According to Eliud Dotto, Rikolto Field Officer in Tanga, similar savings community has been initiated at Mgandini Market-the second biggest market in Tanga. “Empowering traders in the markets to grow their business will positively impact the food system in Tanga,” he says.

According to Awadh and her fellows, now they are firming their plans to start a poultry rearing business using their savings of the group and, if possible, a loan to augment the capital. Now, that obtaining and growing a capital has been solved, the success of traders at Mlango wa chuma market is not only a possibility, but realisable.  

The market’s name, —translated iron door— derived from its original iron clad entrance, will distinguish it again as place of successful city traders in the heart of Tanga city’s storied geometrical perfect layout of the streets. Ends    

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