Inat Assefa carefully observes wheat and teff prices at the market. At harvest time, when supplies are high and prices fall, she buys extra grain and stores it a few months until prices increase. She developed this simple idea to time the annual market and enhance her income while writing a business plan in preparation for receiving a microloan.
Her primary business remains making injera, which she sells each day at market, but this supplementary income enables her to increase her savings while more easily affording school fees and uniforms for her three children. Inat credits the $175 microloan, which she repaid early, with “changing my life style and helping me learn to save funds for a rainy day.”