By Bulawayo Entrepreneurs – Meet our very own Gugulethu Siso, a 28 year old entrepreneur born at Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo, who is CEO and co-founder of Thumeza Fintech .
Gugulethu was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where she did primary education at Fairview Primary School up to sixth grade before she left for Namibia. Soon after high school, she joined the University of Namibia, where she studied and attained a degree in business administration.
At a tender age of 22 years, she embarked on an entrepreneurial journey by co-founding a Namibian-based trolley management company called 99 Investments, where she employed over 45 workers. The company offers trolley guards and repair services to major retailers in Namibia, including Shoprite, Checkers, Woolworths, and Food Lovers’ Market.Under her guidance as the Chief Executive Officer, 99 Investments secured 8 Million Rands in venture capital funding
Gugulethu sold off her shares and left the company to start a new organisation, Thumeza, a logistics business in Zimbabwe , in 2018 .
The name Thumeza was derived from ukuThumeza, a Ndebele word which means ‘to ask someone to carry something along for you’. With the challenges that she faced in logistics business, especially when dealing with big companies on late payment she the decided to move to Southafrica where she opened Thumeza Fintech which provides loans to entrepreneurs who are in the logistics business.
Thumeza is a fintech that uses an online loan management platform to provide credit to small-scale transporters through debtors factoring and early invoice settlement solutions.
Today, Thumeza, a business worth over millions , is working with big companies like Pick n Pay and many others to finance transporters in the region.
She has done it. Yes, it can be done .
Wake up and grind
Vuka Ugeze ubangene
