Chilufya Mutale
When Zambian entrepreneur Chilufya Mutale and her husband decided to launch a lending business, they were driven by a vision to support underserved small businesses and low-income consumers often excluded from traditional financial services. But turning that vision into reality required extraordinary sacrifices.
In 2019, the couple founded Premier Credit – later rebranded as eShandi – pouring all their savings into the venture. They sold their home and cars, relying on public transport as they navigated the challenges of building a business from scratch. “We were basically using public transport… We just went all in… It was a very, very risky thing that we did, honestly,” she recalls.
To minimise costs, the couple decided to move from Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, to a smaller city. They settled on Kitwe, a mining town with significant economic activity.
The next step was finding customers to lend money to. They strategically opened a small branch near the largest market in Kitwe, home to vendors selling everything from fresh produce to consumer goods. Their initial focus was on providing small loans, as low as $5, to these traders.
The couple worked closely with market leaders, who managed the vendors and understood their operations. Because vendors paid levies to the market association, the leaders had insights into which traders were established, consistent in paying their levies, and likely to repay loans. In return for their cooperation, eShandi offered the market leaders interest-free loans.
“We worked with them to help us identify the customers who we could work with. And then they created a platform for us where they gathered all the members together. And then we then basically pitched to them by talking about our products, our service offerings and what we can offer them,” Mutale explains.
At the time, eShandi was a tiny operation – just Mutale, her husband, and two loan officers. Demand for loans was high, and their initial offering was a 30-day product with flexible repayment options, including daily, weekly, or lump-sum payments at the end of the term.
To attract more customers cost-effectively, the company introduced a referral incentive. Existing customers who referred new clients enjoyed reduced interest rates on their own loans.
The business grew organically as repayments, including interest, were reinvested into extending more loans. With growing revenues, the company hired developers to create a technology platform that allowed customers to apply for loans digitally. This enabled the company to scale by removing the need for physical interactions with customers.
Since its founding, eShandi has disbursed over $11 million in loans. It has also expanded into Zimbabwe, Kenya, and South Africa, while diversifying its offerings to include payment solutions and value-added services like life insurance.
Watch our full in-depth interview with Chilufya Mutale: The entrepreneur who sold her house to build a fintech business
