Running a small business can be an eye-opening venture. If you have a skill like baking or making mandazis, you buy the ingredients, follow the recipe, and soon, you have a basketful of mandazis or cakes that you are selling by the roadside or at the local market.

In a short while, you will be making a little money, all of which will go to your M-PESA.

But how can you tell which money belongs to you, to the business and the chama?

This is a scenario that Lucille Aveva has observed play out a lot in life. In many of the situations she has observed, the person involved is a woman.

She has decided to do something about it, and that’s why nowadays, when she goes on market visits, she encourages women traders to register for Pochi la Biashara.

Lucille views Pochi la Biashara as a product that brings technology and financial inclusion in a perfect way, enabling informal traders to develop a financial track record that enables them to grow their businesses. It starts with the ability to start off with just a Safaricom number to register for Pochi la Biashara.

“To empower them to think they are a businessperson with dignity, they don’t have to be registered by the Government of Kenya with a Certificate of Registration,” she observed.

Like the paybill and till numbers, it is hard to reverse money sent to Pochi la Biashara, which is a great advantage for women in the markets.

“It protects their numbers in terms of being vulnerable; the menfolk in the marketplace harass them. We’ve heard the womenfolk say that sometimes they give their numbers, they are harassed, and they are followed home,” said Lucille.

Beyond knowing how to separate their finances, Pochi la Biashara users are on a special business tariff and can sell airtime and earn commissions like dealers.

Watch the video to hear from Lucille on why she is an evangelist for Pochi la Biashara and why as the world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, it is a perfect way to “Accelerate Action.”