Mtengeti turned a hobby into a money minter

Business Times continues to profile women involved in business, who will share their success tips and experiences of how they made it in the cutthroat and male-dominated business world. They reveal how they started out, what inspired them and how they have managed to make their business dreams come true. This week, Peterson Tumwebaze caught up with Amina Mtengeti, a salon owner and hairdresser in Nyamirambo, a Kigali suburb SHE dared to dream. She aspired. She believed in her abilities and followed her heart in the quest for a better life despite lack of formal education. She now owns a chain of salons and a number of rentals in a Kigali suburb. Meet Amina Mtengeti, 62, who migrated from Katavi in western Tanzania 40 years ago and now lives in Nyamirambo, a city suburb. Mtengeti talked to Business Times about her illustrious career as a hair dresser, which spans 42 solid years. Starting out“I never went to school, but that did not bog me down. I looked at the lack of formal education as a challenge that needed a suitable solution. So, at 20 years of age, I decided to try my hand at hairdressing, a trade I learnt from my mother,” she says. Attending to one of her clients at Urumuri, one of her salons in Nyamirambo, Mtengeti says because she was not educated to get herself a decent job, hairdressing was the next best alternative. “Many women used to come home in Katavi, western Tanzania, and ask my mother to style their hair to make them look more beautiful…This is how I got interested in hairdressing because I admired my mother’s customers’ hair so much. After some time, I also started styling the hair of the young girls in our village as a hobby. Little did I know that it would turn into a business and my breakthrough in life,” she explains. Mtengeti is all praises for the ‘old school’ type of hairdressing though it was tiring.“Young girls liked keeping their hair long and it was our duty to do it neatly.” Mtengeti says business was good since women kept copying new hair styles from across Africa. “We never had the machines you see around here today, we only depended on old tools. I remember us using empty tins and charcoal as hair driers, but this did not discourage me because I knew that the future for hair dressing as a business was so bright,” Mtengeti notes in distinct Tanzanian Swahili. The hairdresser later left her native country and went to Burundi in search of greener pastures. Hairdressing ambassador with nose for opportunitiesAfter working in Burundi for about 10 years, Mtengeti re-located to Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo after one of her friends assured her there were better business opportunities there. “When you are in any business, you need to stay alert all the time and be flexible. I left Burundi because I anticipated better business in the DR Congo. “However, to my greatest surprise, business did turn out as originally thought, forcing me to leave the Democratic Republic of Congo and come here (Rwanda) after spending only 18 months in Bukavu,” she points out. Mtengeti, who has spent 12 years in Rwanda, doing what she knows best, is confident and proud of her job. She says despite of her old age, she still manages to plait three people per day and earns over Rwf30,000 daily. She pockets close to Rwf1,000,000 per month. She says she saves over Rwf250,000 every month after deducting taxes and all the other family expenses. She employs eight workers.Expansion, retirement plansThe mother of four, with three grandchildren, kept on complaining of her eyes during the interview, a sign of her advanced age. This has, however not stopped the senior hairdresser from expanding her business by opening up two branches of her Urumuri Salon chain in Kikicuro and Nyabugogo city suburbs. Mtengeti has also sent her daughter Emily Nambela to Germany for further studies and pays fees for her last daughter Miriam Kilumanga, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in accounting at ULK University in Gisozi using savings from the business. She also pays school fees for her grandchildren, who we found helping her at her Nyamirambo salon. Mtengeti has also not only put a roof above her head, but is a landlady in Nyamirambo. “I secured a plot of land, where I built some rentals, from which I earn Rwf200,000 savings every month,” she says. She proudly says she has singlehandedly raised her four children and secured her retirement years, too. Success tips and adviceMtengeti attributes her success, not only to her skills, but also to God as she kept referring to Him and thanking Him “for His immense rewards” throughout the interview. She adds that she is a go-getter, works hard and never gives in the face of difficulties. Mtengeti advises people, especially women, never to fear following their aspirations. She challenges the uneducated and the semi-educated Rwandans to stop self pity and to go out there and get something to earn a living, noting that nobody has ever gotten satisfied on handouts. Challenges Mtengeti, however, complains of unstable power supply, which she notes has affected her daily income. “Customers come to have their hair fixed, but we can’t do it when there is no power. As you can see, most of these machines use electricity.”From using empty hot tins to electricity, it has been a long, winding, but rewarding journey for Mtengeti. One would say her career circle has already come full as her grandchildren seek skills bestowed onto her by her mother. Who said it is only the educated that make it to the top in their fields? All it takes is a dream, belief in oneself and a determination to achieve that dream.