Transforming the Lives of Rural Women: Meet Margaret

This profile is part of a series that captures how Root Capital’s Gender Equity Grants are transforming the lives of rural women. Read more here.

While Margaret Nyaguthie spends her days working as an inspection supervisor in the Sagana Nuts factory, her husband runs a small business roasting and selling maize. “He used to borrow a motorbike to deliver it, but it was difficult to hire one from someone else all the time, especially [during] heavy rain,” she says.

Margaret was already participating in a rotating savings and credit cooperative, but when Sagana used part of its Gender Equity Grant from Root Capital to create a new savings fund for employees, she transferred her funds over, as the new fund would allow her take out a loan at a lower interest rate.

With access to credit, Margaret and her husband jointly decided to buy a motorbike that would allow them to expand the roasted maize business, deliver to new clients, and increase the family’s income. “It has had a multiplier effect on his business,” she says. “Now he is able to expand and his stock is much larger as he is supplying to hotels, which I didn’t expect.” The increased revenue also means that the family, including their young child, can eat more nutritious food at home and pay school fees without struggling.

But it’s also had an effect on Margaret’s personal relationships: “It has had a positive change in our household. I am able to support my husband, which makes our relationship good. If there’s a problem at home at least we can come up with a solution as the both of us.”