Allam ‘Mokhola’ Mwale is an expert bicycle mechanic in a remote community in Malawi. In rural Malawi having a bicycle is a symbol of affluence and is seen as something of a status symbol. 

Mokhola runs his workshop in the open-air under the shade of a large tree close to the local trading centre. Early morning sees as many as 15 bicycles up-ended at his workshop ready for Mokhola to get started. Business is good.

He started the business in 2002. “I chose to focus on bicycle repairs because I did a community survey and I saw the potential: bicycles were the only reliable means of transport for the people in this remote area and almost every hard-worker rewarded himself or herself by buying a bicycle,” he explains.

Mokhola readily confesses to a bad start in his business. “For about a year, I had very few repair tools of my own. I had to borrow some of the basic tools from acquaintances… and some of them started refusing to lend me their tools after they noted that I was making steady business,” he says.

The Finance Trust for the Self-Employed (FITSE) is the micro-finance institution partnered with World Vision. It works with entrepreneurs to boost best-practice, micro-enterprise development activities. Mokhola received a small loan and he hasn't looked back since.

Mokhola charges his clients K50 (18p) for greasing a bicycle hub, K120 (43p) for repairing a chain problem, K150 (54p) for fixing and greasing a bicycle hub and K350 (£1.26) for assembling a new bicycle.

“Of course, there are other rates that apply in my business and suffice to say that I am a contented businessman because the living standard has vastly improved in my family,” he says. Mokhola has a wife, two sons and two daughters.

He has a very busy schedule that sees clients knocking on his door as early as 5am and urging him on as late as 7pm - the only light coming from a hurricane lamp hung from the tree. The business is going so well that Mokhola is planning on getting an assistant. “I now plan to employ one or two people in the area who have shown some interest in this work. Surely, they will appreciate the employment opportunity and will be committed to their jobs,” he says.

In the meantime, Mokhola says he has encouraged one of his children, 16-year-old Satiele, to help him at the workshop. “This is a subtle way of handing over the mantle. But in doing this, I am careful that Satiele’s main interest should be in his education and that this business becomes only a side-project,” Mokhola says.

The bicycle mechanic says he has a dream for his business. “Although in my travels I have not seen a bicycle mechanic with a modern workshop, I hope to break the record. In fact, I hope to end up also having a fully-fledged shop for bicycle parts,” he enthuses.