Out of her quest to be financially independent and help address the problem of financial literacy in the country, Yemi Olalekan, co-founder of Pennylender, established her online business in 2016.
“We wanted to improve financial inclusion in the country and make financial services freely and easily accessible to the under-served population. Our focus is helping the hardworking but low income earners and small business owners take care of their cash flow shortfalls,” she says.
The young entrepreneur with Olayinka Olonode, her cofounder, started the business with their personal savings, an amount that was then spent on designing their business website.
After some period of time, Yemi and her co-founder pitched their business idea to some potential investors who found the it viable, investing in it later.
Since stating, Yemi says that the business has grown as market acceptance for her firm’s products and services has been fantastic. She notes that the business has continued to sign new customers on a daily basis with feedback on excellent customers’ satisfaction on a daily rise.
Answering questions on the challenges the business is facing, Yemi says that getting the right employees for the business remains the firm’s biggest challenge.
She observes that that getting young graduates that are ambitious and trainable at first recruitment is quite difficult. She points out that it takes her and her partner several recruitments exercise to find the right people, which is increasing their spending on recruitment.
She says that technology has the potential to diversify the Nigerian economy away from oil, stressing that it remains the only enabler of every other sector in the economy to perform optimally.
“Nigeria needs to take a cue from some of these nations that have used technology to grow their economy. We should not only have conferences and conversations about STEM education, but we should institutionalise it and allow it to take root from primary to through post university/polytechnic study.
“STEM education in itself will not deliver the results, but we must also create a supportive, enabling environment and market to build, practise, experiment and commercialize technology,” Yemi further says.
Speaking on the business expansion plan, she discloses that Pennylender.com plans to expand into other Africa countries and replicate the Nigerian model all across the continent.
Asked what his advice to other entrepreneurs is, Yemi says, “You will lose your vitality; you will get tired, and this is absolutely normal. Your strength and motivation must come from the goals you have before you, from the customers and clients who depend on your solutions; so keep your eyes on your goals always.”
She advises upcoming entrepreneurs to seek partnerships to grow their business.
“Never stop learning. Starting and growing a business will take all kinds of education: Self-study, formal education and street education. Trust and believe in the people who work for or with you, take care of them and they will in turn take care of the business,” she adds.
Josephine Okojie
