Government, FDB Assist Maritime Bakery
Alumita Tuila, a 57-year-old resident of Galoa Village in Tavuki, Kadavu, is an entrepreneur for Goodness Investment.
She started her canteen business in 2009. With her husband’s help two years ago, she branched out into a bakery business.
Galoa Village can only be accessed by boat, making her bakery essential to the livelihoods and development of her community.
Bakery works
Ms Tuila’s bakery started once a week. Now operates three days, from Thursday to Saturday. Bakery products around these villages are highly sought.
To keep up with demand, Ms Tuila applied for a grant under the Integrated Human Resource Development Programme (IHRDP).
IHRDP is designed for micro, small and medium enterprises in peri-urban, rural and remote areas.
Ms Tuila’s application was successful and a total project cost of $15,000 was approved.
Loan for women entrepreneurs
Ms Tuila reached out to Fiji Development Bank (FDB) to seek a one-third contribution and learned about FDB Loan for women entrepreneurs facility.
“I will use the funding from the Ministry and FDB to purchase the much-needed bakery equipment, including an 18 kg dough mixer, slicer, S/Teel working bench, six-layer bread rack, kitchen scale, containers, oven and a baking steel,” she said
“I want to encourage other women to take advantage of such facilities provided by the Government and the Fiji Development Bank, especially when everything is accessible online.”
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Source: Fiji Development Bank
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