Tewabe’s Journey: From Shoe Shiner to Successful Entrepreneur
Published: May 10, 2024 Reading time: 4 minutes
As a child Tewabe Eshete from Ethiopia used to shine shoes on streets to earn some money for food. Today, he is successful entrepreneur in leather business. First the income generated was insufficient to make a meaningful improvement in his enterprise, eventually putting him in hand-to-mouth situation. Then he was supported within our EU-Funded project and his career started to move right direction.
Tewabe Eshete lives in Adama city, located 99 km southeast of the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. After attempting various forms of occupation including shoe shinning, Tewabe ultimately decided to pursue leather products production in 2014.
For a teenage who came from a rural town, seeking employment and make a living was considerably more difficult than what he had initially expected. “Residing in Adama was very tough for me. There is nothing that I didn’t tried to secure employment at the very beginning,” said Tewabe. “After experiencing several challenges, I in due course started to work in small shoe repair shop for a daily payment of 20 ETB.” After getting this opportunity, Tewabe decided to be financially responsible more than ever to ensure his vision of starting his own business. He begun to deposit ekub (traditional way of saving money), consequently bought some shoe repair materials and started repairing leather shoes by himself. This is where the foundation placed.
With this beginning, he eventually started to improve his business and subsequently ventured into production of leather goods despite possessing limited knowledge of the details involved in the process. However, as he begun the production with one skilled employee, working a long side him, he was able to acquire different techniques and skills that are valuable for his business improvement.
As the business progressed, Tewabe questioned himself that he might overlooked certain aspects that hindered the growth of his business at the expected pace and put him in hand-to-mouth situation.
In 2021, People in Need (PIN) together with its partners International Rescue Committee and Solidaridad launched a consortium project entitled LISEC (Leather initiative for Sustainable Employment Creation) Green Jobs in the Leather Sector funded by European Union and supported by Czech Republic Development Cooperation. The project came with a broad vision in the leather sector, one of which is to capacitate existing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the leather sector.
In the beginning, LISEC provided Business Development Service (BDS) for Tewabe and other MSMEs in order to support them strengthen and improve their business. “It is no exaggeration to say that the BDS has changed my life,” he said. Most of the MSMEs members had no information about services that improve the performance of their enterprise, its access to markets and its ability to compete.
The project also delivered leather sewing machines for Tewabe’s and other MSMEs. “I was working with one outdated sewing machine. Buying sewing machines was not in my short time plan due to its expensiveness,” described Tewabe. Now he received three modern sewing machines and hired three employees for his enterprise. His monthly turnover has been increasing time to time after the support.
“Additionally, the project has been supportive in securing loans from microfinance institution, further supporting my endeavors. I really want to thank the project. My business couldn’t go this far if I didn’t get the support.”
For the past three years, LISEC Green Jobs Project supported 17 existing MSMEs in the leather sector and has trained more than 600 unemployed women and youth in five TVET and Polytechnic colleges of Modjo, Adama, Bishoftu, Dukem and Sebeta in the leather sector.
