OSCAR MWILA

It was a real pleasure to meet and talk to Oscar Mwila recently. Oscar has worked for a Christian organisation called Operation Mobilization (OM) for around 14 years now helping individuals and small groups of people to set up businesses and giving them training to help them succeed and run profitable businesses.

Oscar talked about his experience, first of all in the mining industry when he first left education and then having his own small businesses when the mines became privatised. His business interests back then were involved with fishing. He didn’t actually fish but imported the “tilley lamps” that the fishermen used to attract the Kapenta at night on the lakes. He also bought the fish caught and sold it on to further markets.

Oscar is now 43, married to Christine, a secondary school teacher and they have 3 lovely children. Priscilla is 8 years old and Catherine, 6. Both of the older children go to school in Ndeke, an area of Ndola. Their youngest child is Oscar Junior who is just 2.

The whole family believe very much in Christian values and with this in mind Oscar started working with OM and a missionary empowering local people to understand business and to start their own. He was a missionary for 5 years in Malawi then for a further year in Zanzibar before returning to The Copperbelt and setting up home in Ndola.

Oscar and his family outside his new house that is being constructed

He now helps clients learn about

• Business Identification
• Business Assessment – Viability and Profitability
• Business Plans – Accounting, Spreadsheets and Cash Flow 

during his Business Training session.

Oscar has been working with Beyond Ourselves to help several people including some from Kawama to set up diverse businesses such as buying and selling clothes and breeding, growing on and selling chickens. In August and the following months he will be working with several people at Janna to train them in the business side of running and operating a small bakery. This will involve stock purchasing and rotation and stock taking. He will also be working with them to understand profit and loss (hopefully not too much of the loss though). It is not just with Beyond Ourselves he carries out this work but with many of the local communities in this area.

Explaining business methods to a small group at Janna School

When asked about his interests, Oscar very quickly replied his main interest is watching his protégés businesses prosper and grow with ongoing training. He really enjoys transforming people’s lives and helping to bridge the unemployment gap.

When not working with others he still carries on several small business opportunities himself with a brick/block making company as well as a small farming interest where last year he grew soya beans and has replaced them in the dry season with over 4000 head of cabbage that he sells locally along with free range chickens.

Oscar took Jan and I out along with his wife and children to show us his new home he is having built in Ndola. They are all looking forward to moving there as soon as they can.

Thank you to Oscar and the whole family for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us.