Joyce Wafukho is a mother of five who grew up on a farm in western Kenya. As a young woman raised in proximity to the farming business, Joyce noticed that there were no retail hardware stores in her area, and aspired to start a hardware business. In 1994, Joyce invested her entire savings to buy a small amount of inventory, and launched her business in a rented space. However, her plans for a fully-stocked hardware store were hampered by lack of investment capital, and initially she was able to sell only tomatoes and charcoal.

Joyce contacted numerous banks seeking loans to expand her business, but her loan applications were denied or simply ignored. Finally, after years of rejection by creditors, Joyce's local provincial administration told her about Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), an affiliate of Women's World Banking. KWFT provides small business loans to nearly 83,000 clients throughout six regions of Kenya, all of them women.

Joining other women in her area, Joyce received training from KWFT in accounting, simple book-keeping, leadership, conflict management and group dynamics. In April 2004 she received her first loan from KWFT for 50,000 Kenya Shillings (Sh), or USD 680. Since then, Joyce has received, and promptly repaid, five loan installments from KWFT, for a total of Sh 1.2 million (USD 16,500). The loans have enabled her to increase her inventory, buy machines, expand her business, and diversify into selling lumber and farm inputs, making bricks and culverts, and harvesting sand for construction. In the process, she has also become a contractor, and has been awarded tenders to supply materials and construct classrooms and dispensaries.

Joyce currently employs 25 full-time workers as well as a number of casual laborers at construction sites, generating income for many families in addition to her own. Her business, Lugari Hardware Agencies and Construction Enterprises, also employs her husband, a former policeman, as Director and Debt Collector. Joyce's business has enabled her to build a permanent home for her family and to provide her children and siblings with better nutrition, health care and education. She has also been able to support the college education of her sister, who is pursuing a Master's degree.

Joyce's hardware business has accumulated stock and other fixed assets worth more than Sh 2millon (USD 27,500). With access to progressively larger loans from KWFT, she intends to become a direct purchaser of bulk goods from manufacturers. Within the next five years, she plans to open a supermarket.