Mokgosi finds solace in milling business

ISAAC PINIELO
Correspondent | Friday August 6, 2010 00:00

Instead, she decided to change course and pursue her long-term dream of becoming an entrepreneur.

Today, the 60-year-old woman is the sole director of Shashe Mooke Milling - a company that supplies shops with sorghum meal with the brand name 'Mmabana Mabele'.

The brand has become a household name for many people in Francistown and its peripheries, especially to those who love mabele as their meal. 'If you taste the sorghum that we produce, you would never want to eat any other sorghum meal apart from it,' she enthuses.  She says she supplies this sorghum meal to many shops around Francistown and has recently clinched a lucrative deal to supply Choppies Supermarket. 'People really love this product and they are buying it in plenty,' she says

This could be true because when The Monitor crew visited her at Choppies Supermarket on Thursday, people could be seen regularly picking 10kg packs of Mmabana Mabele from the shop. One female customer told The Monitor, 'Mabele a Mmabana a monate mo go maswe. Ke reka one fela malatsi a. (This Mmabana sorghum meal really tastes so good. I only buy this brand nowadays).  Mokgosi says she first ventured into the milling business in October 2004, after securing funds from the Financial Assistance Policy (FAP). She says her idea to come up with such a business was ignited by the unavailability of a milling company in Shashe Mooke. The other thing she had noticed was that people in Shashe Mooke were no longer using the traditional 'mortar-and-pestle' ways of milling.

Instead, she adds, they sought milling services from a Borolong-based milling company.

'I then realised that there was a gap that had to be filled and I had to capitalise on that,' says the witty mother of three, adding that she went through the whole process of starting a business, beginning with a market research which assured her of a lucrative business venture. Her business started off by offering milling services to the residents of Shashe Mooke and then grew into supplying shops and eventually Choppies Supermarket. 'I started supplying Choppies after they saw my product at an exhibition that was organised by the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA),' she notes. Mokgosi says she buys her raw sorghum from local farmers and from the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB). She has hauling and milling machines at her business and one delivery truck, which she bought with a loan acquired from the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA). She has employed four people who help her with the whole production process of milling and packaging. She says ever since the inception of her business, continuing demand for Mmabana Mabele has become overwhelming that she now feels the need for more delivery trucks. She adds that more people are now turning to sorghum because it is a healthy meal.

'Sorghum meal is good for one's digestion system. In this era of many diseases, people are being encouraged to eat sorghum meal,' emphasises Mokgosi. Although she admits that business is not always smooth, she says she is happy with how the business is performing so far. She reveals that by the end of the year she will be supplying Mmabana Mabele to other shops all over the country. 'Choppies has also promised us that we will supply all its other branches in the country,' she says. She indicates that her concern is that she does not disappoint the people she supplies because they are the backbone of her business. 'The most important rule in any business is that you should never let people down. You should make it a point that you have ample stock all the time,' she advises.

Meanwhile, Mokgosi indicates that she has no intentions of going back to politics as she has now found solace in business. She however notes that her business nearly collapsed while she was a councillor because she devoted most of her time to politics than to her business. 'I have realised that mixing business with politics could lead to the business suffering because you cannot always be there to monitor the day-to-day activities of your business,' she maintains, indicating that it is the reason she has decided to quit politics after losing so that she can be fully committed to her business.

Lastly, Mokgosi says she feels compelled to commend Choppies Supermarket saying that they have been very supportive to local businesses. She says, 'They pay us well and are willing to help on the best ways to promote our products.'