Suicidal thoughts amongst women entrepreneurs seem to be on the rise. In the last couple of months, I have found myself amid conversations with women entrepreneurs who have lost a lot of money and are completely at a loss on what to do.
Hi, my name is Fostina last name Mani (www.fostinamani.com). I am the Global Trade Engagement Director at Betta Grains (www.bettagrains.com) am also the Founder of a market place called Mothers of Africa Mobile Soko (www.mothersofafricamobilesoko.com). I believe Africa can feed itself. I believe Africa can profit from agriculture trade. And that is why I am championing for an Agricultural Markets Revolution that favours Africa.
In my most recent conversation was at a hospital, where one female entrepreneur openly admitted that she was there because she had contemplated suicide a few times. When I asked her why? She simply told me that she owed a lot of money because her business had failed. It turns out the lady was lending out money to people for a fee. She had investors whom she got money from, then she in turn loaned out the money at an interest. Without going into much details it turns out that she was conned. She cannot exactly recall how but before she knew it she had lost all the money investors had given her, now she was having to deal with a lot of threatening calls and harassment from her creditors.
The money was not the reason for her suicidal thoughts, but the tormenting phone calls, harassments, and embarrassment from the creditors to everyone she knew, both family, extended families, friends, and friends of friends. I almost laughed when she mentioned that she had maxed on her level of embarrassments. She no longer felt the shame and had decided to go out and look for work so she could repay the money back. She just needed peace of mind to think through on what to do to repay the money back.
I was intrigued that if the money was not the problem, especially if she was confident that she could pay it all back. Why kill yourself I asked? Do you have any children? She happily said she had children, and they were not small children. My mouth went ahead of me, and I asked her if she realized that most people would probably forget about her within two weeks after her burial. I asked her, so what would happen to her children? Why would she allow her children to suffer life without a mother? Especially seeing her husband would probably be showing up at her funeral with his side chick. I was only guessing the side chick part, however a light bulb lit in her head, and she turned around and asked. By the way why am I trying to kill myself? I was like “You tell me?”
She posed for a moment in deep thought, then I asked her, by the way how much money is this you are trying to kill yourself for? I was expecting a figure in the millions, when she told me the amount I asked her. Do you realize that is the value of a used car? It is not even the value of a whole house? Why would you want to kill yourself for a fraction of a house? That is when she told me that it was not the monetary value but the interest she has already paid, and the fact that the debt does not seem to decrease. She felt trapped, because she knew she could easily clear the whole amount, as a matter of fact the amount she had paid in interest was more than the loan amount. The problem is she just did not know what to do. She was paralyzed under fear, which just kept her in a vicious cycle of depressing thoughts.
Then she turned around and asked me what is mention and going before a judge? I asked her if she had an agreement with her creditors. She mentioned there was nothing on paper, they kept changing her terms of payment with each downpayment. She was being taken advantage of because she did not know her legal rights nor did she have any information on business documentation, contracts, and governing laws.
At that point I asked her if she could consider just going before the court of law, admitting she had messed up and seeing if she could present a payment plan to the judge. I did suggest that she seeks legal advice, but much to my surprise she mentioned the lawyers she had seen did not seem to understand her business and she was worried she would not afford the right lawyers. I advised her to visit the various organizations such as FIDA which over legal service probono. However I also suggested that she googles and begins to educate herself on the court process. I told her there were many videos that could educate her on the court process on youtube.
By the way do you know what declaring bankruptcy is? I asked. She said No!!! Well, you are not the first person to go through financial difficulties, was my response. As a matter of fact, do you realize that Donald Trump, TD Jakes, Njenga Karume, Julian Kyula, Raphael Tuju, and almost all super wealthy Kenyans you know of have been auctioned, or had to declare bankruptcy at one point in their lives. She looked at me and said No Way!!! Do your homework your problem is ignorance about your current situation. Ignorance is the reason you have handed your power to your creditors. You need to get your power back and the first place to begin is get educated in what the law says. You do not need to go to law school, just google and find videos that specifically deal with your case.
By the way, I am super impressed by the fact that you were able to go out and come up with an investment fund that you could actually give loans out and earn more money for yourself. Do you realize within you lies a gift or talent for a micro-finance, a bank, or money related product that is waiting to be birthed in you? What do you mean she asked? I reminded of the olive, which needs to be crushed so olive oil can be produced from the olives. Your current situation is nothing more than a crushing. Your mess is simply nothing more than an opportunity to learn from your mistakes, pick up more skills on how to manage large amounts of money, and most important of all God could be birthing a vision of a financial bank from within you. You just need to go learn about the banking systems, bankruptcy laws, and especially for women entrepreneurs.
As she was contemplating her name was called out. Our time was up, she needed to go see the doctor. She was no longer sad and confused. She smiled and walked towards the doctor’s office. As I watched her walk away, I said a silent prayer for a bank or micro-finance owner. I thanked God for the opportunity to speak life to a great African woman in the banking or financial sector. I did not take her name, neither did she have mine, I was simply grateful for having sown a seed of hope, to a woman who felt her life was worth nothing. I was also humbled that God had granted me another opportunity to transform the life of an African woman and hopeful to those who will read or listen to this.
