"I Began to Double My Work"
By Tilly Grey

Hard work enabled Francis Mugisa to pay off his mortgage six years early.

Concerned about making his mortgage payments, Francis Mugisa worked even harder, and as a result expanded his business and paid off his mortgage.


Francis Mugisa definitely sees himself as a successful Ugandan entrepreneur these days. In 1996, he and his wife, Jolly, lived in a traditional mud and stick hut. Francis earned a meager living by selling a few items such as soap and sodas in a small shop in the market area. When they applied to become Habitat homeowners with the Hoima affiliate that year, they first had to meet several requirements in order to be considered. Applicants are required to assemble three loads of sand and a pile of gravel. In addition, they must make approximately 5,000 bricks. The Mugisa family met these requirements, were selected and built their brick Habitat house.

Francis says a remarkable thing happened when he began to worry about being able to pay his mortgage payments. “I began to double my work and in doing that, my business improved very much,” he says. So much so that Francis paid off his Habitat mortgage last year. Since then, he has moved his store into a larger space where he now not only sells soda and soap, but also beans, nuts, rice and other grains, onions and clothes.

Now that the family has four children, they have added two rooms to their house, a tin-roofed veranda, security door and front steps. A brick kitchen replaces the old mud one, and they have plastered over the house’s brick exterior. Francis would like to bring electricity to his house—but with bank loan interest rates at 30 percent, he will wait until he can afford it on his own. Until then, he is happy with the changes Habitat has brought to his life.


Snapshot
Francis and Jolly Mugisa, Hoima, Uganda, Africa
House description: Three-room brick house with outdoor kitchen and latrine.
Moved in: 1996
Total amount of mortgage: $489
Monthly payment: $4.08
Paid off in: 2000


Tilly Grey is the correspondent with Habitat for Humanity's Africa/Middle East area.


Reprinted from Habitat World Magazine, April/May 2001.
This article may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
©2001 Habitat for Humanity International