Berna Nambi believes education changes lives because she has experienced its impact firsthand. The story of how she built a successful business, supported her extended family, and mentored other women in her community all began when she got the opportunity to learn something new.
In 1998, Berna was a wife and mother living in a village in the Buikwe District of Uganda, focused on managing the responsibilities of daily home life when she attended a financial education training hosted by FINCA Uganda. “We used to gather together as women, and they would teach us financial literacy,” she recalls. She couldn’t have imagined at the time that the lessons she learned about saving, borrowing, and running a business would shape the future of her family for decades to come. The training gave her the confidence to take out UGX 70,000 (roughly $50) as part of a group loan with four other women in her community. She used the funds to purchase young broiler chickens and raised them in her backyard. She then sold the chickens for a profit, repaid the loan, and reinvested her earnings, building her poultry operation one step at a time.
Over the years, Berna carefully expanded her business with FINCA’s support, purchasing a plot of land and graduating to larger individual loans. Eventually, she was able to open a store called Nyange Farm Supply in the neighboring city of Lugazi. She worked tirelessly to ensure the success of her business, driven by the desire to provide an education for her children. She used her growing income to pay the school fees of her own children as well as several orphaned nieces and nephews in her care.
In 2015, Nambi faced one of the most difficult periods of her life after losing her husband to a long battle with illness. The family spent nearly everything they had trying to save his life, and she was left with bare shelves and no way to fill them. She found herself searching for a way forward at a time when her eldest son was already attending university, another was preparing to enroll, and an entire household was depending on her every day. “I looked at my children and asked myself where I would even begin,” she says. “Their father was gone, meals were hard to guarantee, and their future was hanging by a thread.”
Berna was determined not to let her children’s studies come to an end. She turned again to FINCA Uganda, a longstanding, trusted partner in her business journey for nearly two decades. “They knew my history and that I was a woman of my word,” Berna recalls. “They approved a new loan to restock my empty shop.” It gave her the chance to get back on her feet when she needed it most. With products once again on the shelves and steady income coming in, the business she had spent years building could continue providing for her family.
Today, nearly 30 years after Berna took out her first small loan, Nyange Farm Supply generates an average annual net profit of UGX 12 million (around $3,200 USD). The children whose education she worked so hard to support have gone on to successful careers of their own, and Berna has become a mentor to more than 30 women in her community, encouraging them on their own paths toward financial independence. “FINCA has treated me well,” she says proudly.
“The impact of financial inclusion is rarely limited to one person,” says James Onyutta, CEO of FINCA Uganda. “Berna used what she learned to build a business, educate the next generation, and support other women on their own journeys. Those ripple effects are central to our mission.”
When she reflects on her experience, Berna always returns to the idea that became the foundation for everything that followed. “Many people fear taking loans, but you should never fear starting small,” she says. “Do not wait for a fortune before taking a step.” Through discipline, purpose, and finding a financial partner to walk with her, she transformed a single lesson into an enduring legacy.
