From Ruins to Revenue

Microloan enables small business owner to invest in a new store after a fire devastates his property. Hesham Soliman straightens papyrus paintings in his Khan el Khalili souvenir shop, Ashraf Bazaar. “After the accident I felt like I was drowning. When I got my first loan…it saved me,” – Hesham Soliman, small business owner

When Hesham Soliman’s souvenir shop was razed by an electrical fire in 2004, he turned to the LEAD Foundation, an Egyptian microfinance institution, for assistance with purchasing a new store. “After the accident I felt like I was drowning,” describes Hesham, a typically energetic entrepreneur. “When I got my first loan, I was clinging to it. It saved me.” “I had a vision that getting a loan was a very complicated process, but LEAD made it very easy.” With a wife and four young children at home, this ability to quickly reestablish himself was very important. Two years later, Hesham is on his third loan from the LEAD Foundation, which at 15,000 L.E. equivalent to($2,600) is five times his first loan, allowing him to access the funds needed to both restore and grow his business In addition to buying a new shop, Hesham invested some of his loan in a figurine factory where he now employs 15 workers. From here, he produces the hundreds of Sphinx, pyramid, and Anubus figurines that fill the shelves of his Khan el Khalili shop. “Now that I have financial security, I have the time to think of new products, and other business ideas,” he explains. “I think I should go to exhibitions abroad and export my products.”