Oliver always wanted to start a business so that he could quit employment because he felt that with the meagre salary he earned, he would not be able to live up to his dreams.

So, he saved up some money for close to two years to be able to kickstart his ambitious entrepreneurship journey and unlock the future he wanted for himself and his young family.

He decided to venture into the phone accessories and airtime business because he believed his passion for mobile phones and accessories linked to them would always be profitable.

He leased a space and erected a shop near his house in Donholm, Nairobi, together with renovations, getting a license and purchasing stock gobbled up more than Sh500,000.

Oliver finally quit employment to kickstart his entrepreneurship ride with the business starting sluggishly in the initial months before picking up remarkably in the third month.

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The new entrepreneur started doing so well, since he was the only one selling phone accessories in the new shops, and was raking in an upward of Sh50,000 in profit per month.

By the end of the first year, he took up the adjacent shop and expanded his business to cater to the growing customer base and accessed a bank credit to fund his little expansion.

All seemed to be going well as planned and he ploughed all his profits into acquiring more accessories and bought mobile phones to attract a bigger clientele and upgrade his trade.

On one Wednesday, he went to bed impressed with himself and the two employees he had freshly hired to support his ambition, after making killer sales and raking in huge profits.

However, he was woken up at the wee hours of Thursday by an urgent phone call from the caretaker of building adjacent to his shop and all he heard was “Duka inaungua, kimbia!”

When he got to his shop, what he saw would haunt him for years to come; what remained of what used to be the key to his million-shilling dream was in ashes and dark dull smoke.

A mystery fire, that residents suspected was the result of an electrical fault, had engulfed his entire structure consuming all his wares and all the cash he had generated the previous day.

Oliver was thunderstruck. Heartbroken. Speechless. His life investment of more than Sh1 million had just gone down the drain in a matter of minutes and he could not salvage much.

He wondered how he was going to pick up the pieces, if he ever will, and how he will manage to survive the next phase given he also had loan and family obligations to meet.

This is the situation many operators in the informal sector often find themselves when disaster strikes hurling the majority of them direct to the throes of poverty and desperation.

So, how can they avoid finding themselves in such a dire situation? Entrepreneurs like Oliver should consider purchasing insurance for their business premises and the goods they have.

By getting the relevant insurance, a businessperson will receive cover for all the risks their businesses might be exposed to, enabling them to rest easy knowing they are well covered.

Equity Bancassurance has enriched its Insurance offerings to customers as it upscaled efforts to bridge the huge gap in the uptake of insurance in the informal sector.

For instance, with an insurance policy Oliver’s shop would have been covered against unforeseen situations such as fire, damages from acts of nature such as floods, riots, as well as malicious damage.

Often times, as Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) operators, we tend to think that insurance is for the elite and those who can afford, but that is not the case

Insurance is meant to offer an extra layer of protection.

If you are a new or a veteran businessman, normalize taking insurance covers for yourself, your goods, and your business premise to safeguard you from poverty when tragedy strikes.

To crown it, Equity also offers Insurance Premium Financing to financially boost individuals, traders, institutions, and limited companies to easily pay their premiums in up to monthly installments.

To find out more about the products Equity’s Insurance offers for your business, visit your nearest Equity branch, or explore the website: https://equitygroupholdings.com/ke/insure/ to learn more.