Rise & Shine Private School; Shining example of success story from FDH Graduate Start-ups program

* Our journey began with a significant challenge – just a week before our planned opening in October 2022, we only had two students registered

* Despite this, we decided to move forward. The fact that we had put everything in place, including the hiring of teaching staff, a head teacher, and support members, we were ready to face the reality on the ground

Analysis by Duncan Mlanjira

The business concept of Rise & Shine Primary School in Mulanje was brilliant and won the confidence of FDH Bank to finance it at K45 million under the FDH Graduate Start-up program but initial execution in 2022 was disheartening as the potential children’s parents were cautious to tread into an unknown territory.

Understandably so since the parents’ children were already in the comfort zones of other well established schools but it took the intervention of FDH Bank to inspire the Rise & Shine directors not to give up but to persevere by offering financial management mentorship.

Soon — from two pupils on its opening day — Rise & Shine Primary School is a shining example of success story from FDH Graduate Start-ups; as attested by one of its directors, Esnat Sumphi on Tuesday during the signing of the program’s long-term memorandum of understanding (MoU) by FDH Bank and Malawi University of Business & Applied Sciences (MUBAS).

The MoU takes the FDH Graduate Start-ups program to a higher level which will involve creation of a trust fund in which beneficiary companies of the graduates shall be remitting 20% of the dividends that shall be declared from their annual profits.

The funds shall then be kept in a special trust fund account with FDH Bank, which shall be used to finance future beneficiaries in order to properly sustain the program — which finances innovative and viable business plans, whose loan interests are heavily subsidized.

Invited at the occasion to attest the benefits of the program to final year students at the MoU signing, Rise and Shine’s director, Esnat Sumphi said it was “an honor to share their journey from being students with a dream to becoming entrepreneurs”.

“Glory be to God for the support of the FDH Graduate Start-up program 2022,” she said. “Our journey began with a significant challenge – just a week before our planned opening in October 2022, we only had two students registered.

“Despite this, we decided to move forward. The fact that we had put everything in place, including the hiring of teaching staff, a head teacher, and support members, we were ready to face the reality on the ground.

“This was a difficult decision, but we felt it was necessary to fulfill our vision. A sacrifice we made during this time was to pay ourselves less than our employees did, just so we could closely monitor our cash flow. It was a tough call, but it helped us keep our finances in check.

“One of the scariest moments in our journey was wondering whether the community would respond positively to our business. We also questioned whether we could run a school with no prior experience — but despite these doubts, here we are today with 195 students.

“I remember the first day, my friend and I were distributing flyers about the school, and the first person we approached said: ‘Your school is expensive. There are better schools here in Mulanje offering quality education at an affordable fee’.

“These words terrified us, and we brainstormed with each other, thinking that this was a failed business.

“To date, one of the tough decisions we made was to raise fees twice in the same academic year due to currency devaluation. We were worried about losing customers, but surprisingly, we didn’t.

“This experience taught us that customers are willing to pay for the value of our services.”

Sumphi thus advised the final year students who are aspiring to enrol for the FDH Graduate Start-ups program “to dream big but start small” and to centre their focus on what could provide value to their customers.

“Put effort in the development of the ideas and never stop learning. As Steve Jobs famously said; ‘The only way to do great work is to love what you do’. This quote underscores the significance of passion and dedication in achieving success.

“Surround yourself with a strong support system and don’t hesitate to seek advice from mentors and experts in your field.”

She profoundly expressed their gratitude to FDH Bank for believing in them and their vision, saying: “With their support, we’re not just building a school — we’re shaping the future of our community.

“I’m excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and look forward to seeing more young entrepreneurs follow their dreams with support of this program.

“I also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our mentors [at FDH Bank] — Chisomo, Potamila, and Ronald. Their guidance and support have been invaluable in navigating the challenges of the business world.”

Last year, FDH Bank offered its solidarity by partnering with Rise & Shine Private School alongside Njeza Primary School to plant trees in Mulanje during the Forestry Season — an exercise that also involved other stakeholders such as traditional chiefs and the district’s forestry and education office to plant trees along Likhubula River.

The processes of earning the financing from FDH Bank include forming groups of like minds of four to seven to develop innovative and viable business plans that will solve real economic problems by also identifying viable marketing opportunities.

After developing, the graduates are to present the plans to a special taskforce involving FDH Bank and MUBAS financial experts and where there are loopholes, the taskforce would offer solutions and guidance.

Once the business concept shall be approved, the bank would guide the beneficiary groups through a financial mentorship before being granted the loan at subsidized 5% interest — with a one-year repayment holiday.

The loan shall not be deposited into the beneficiaries’ bank accounts but FDH Bank shall be paying for costs of the assets and other needs direct to suppliers up until their businesses become self sustaining.

The program was initiated taking cognizance of the shrinking job opportunities and to encourage the graduating students to start thinking of venturing into entrepreneurship.

The graduate start-ups, the first of its kind in the financial services industry as well as the corporate world, started in 2021 after FDH Bank’s Deputy Managing Director, George Chitera attended as guest of honour a symposium that MUBAS’ Faculty of Education & Media Studies organised.

The business proposals that were presented impressed Chitera who, after sharing his experiences with the rest of the FDH Holdings’ management team, they resolved to gather the students again for the real time presentations that culminated into FDH Graduate Start Ups.

In 2022, renowned and successful Malawian engineering entrepreneur, Simbi Phiri observed that when pursuing their higher education, the majority of Malawians get obsessed on securing employment upon their graduation instead of aiming for entrepreneurship, which — if deliberate steps are taken to strengthen and stimulate it — can help create job opportunities.

Simbi Phiri, whose business interest is based in South Africa, said this during an interview on Cruise 5 — a one-on-one panel discussion programme on Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), saying it is the norm for most highly educated Malawians to opt at being employed rather than take the risk of being independent by venturing into serious entrepreneurship.

He hinted that entrepreneurship is what the financial authorities can consider supporting to encourage more highly educated experts to venture and grow their entrepreneur businesses so that can sustain on their own into bigger industries so that they keep the country’s economy stable.

Simbi believes that most Malawians have the wrong mentality and perception that entrepreneurship is an option for those who failed to attain higher education — yet they fail to see the bigger picture based on how and why Malawians of Asian origin do their businesses, which is mostly family controlled.

The Indians’ businesses, Simbi said, are controlling the economy, which is second to the corporate world, saying Indians educate their children and once they graduate, they run their family businesses applying what they learnt during their education.

He hinted that Malawian small and medium entrepreneurs, who didn’t undergo higher education, cannot be expected to compete at par with the Malawians of Asian origin.

He gave an example of shoddy and mediocre road construction projects, which the country is given to commission but in under two years, they develop potholes — with some of the bridges getting washed away.

He attributed the inefficiencies due to lack of rigorous inspection on the part of the government, hinting that it borders on corruption where a contractor is asked by procurement authorities to build a 3km stretch of a road at US$1 million — which was the cost of building just a kilometre of a standard road as of last year’s estimate.

He suggested that if a foreign company is contracted to construct a road or any other project, it should be mandated to subcontract to other local contractors — consultant engineers, inspectors, construction material suppliers etc — who should be recapitalized by the government or the private sector to procure the right equipment to independently and efficiently carry out their part of the project.

He said going forward, such local construction contractors can further be recapitalized to meet the required engineering grade which can assist them to be at par with foreign companies for them to bid for and successfully deliver larger projects.

He gave an example of his Khato Civils, which he bought off from an Italian family when was on a grade 4 on South Africa’s high engineering standard and within a reasonable period, it managed to attain the highest grade 9.

This, Simbi said, was due to Khato Civils being subcontracted by reputable construction companies and the proceeds from such projects, Khato Civils managed to acquire bigger assets — both in equipment and human capital — which earned it to be at par with construction giants such as Group 5.

Thus Simbi suggesting that the government and the private sector can refinance entrepreneur businesses to be kept afloat and earn a status of being given contracts from the same government or the corporate world in order to inculcate Malawians to think outside the box rather than being obsessed at getting employed.

“We have too many brains which goes into government for employment, which should have aimed at being entrepreneurs in order to create job opportunities for themselves and those they could employ.”

He added that he had never been employed after finishing school in Malawi and relocated to his mother’s country of birth, Botswana — where he worked as a partner in an engineering company before relocating to Johannesburg where he was a partner in consultant company, LET Engineering.

He then bought off Khato Civils and together with his wife brought it to become one of the top engineering companies which can ably tender and successfully complete a project worth over 5 billion rands.

He maintained that “Malawians have the resilience which needs to be supported”, adding that not all can become employees but people “must aim to be entrepreneurs whose ideas and concepts need to be refinanced to achieve their goals of contributing towards the economy”.