Hultner Estrada & Bethany Beachum
According to the most recent
poverty survey in Nicaragua*, 70% of employed Nicaraguans work in the informal
sector. This is to say two million
people work either for themselves or are sub-employed.
The lack of formal, well-paying Jobs (those which offer a contract, fixed salary, benefits, and social security) has caused the majority of Nicaraguans to create their own businesses or go to the streets to be able to support themselves.
For this reason, the cities of
Nicaragua are characterized by an abundance of small businesses, corner convenience
stores, food stands, small pharmacies, tortilla stands, bakeries, used clothing
stores, not to mention countless vehicles and bicycles that offer
transportation services. On the streets,
too, you can buy everything: juices, fruit, hammocks, car parts, exotic dogs,
and on special occasions, artificial roses, Christmas decorations, flags, and
political symbols.
“The Nicaraguan doesn’t die of
hunger,” goes a saying that describes the ingenuity of this people who never
cease to generate ideas and create all variety of micro-business that are the
motor of our economy.
Even so, although informal
employment has been the alternative for surviving day to day, it still doesn’t
hold a guarantee for long-term economic improvement. The informal employee is someone with few
possibilities for training to improve their business and pay off credit and
loans.
According to the same survey, few
self-employed workers have received support in their work. At the national level, around 6% declare to
have participated in some type of training and only 2% report having received
technical assistance.
“That 2% is where we enter, thanks to
God! That is our little grain of sand!”
says Freddy Méndez, coordinator of the program “Kingdom Businesses.” The program focuses on providing technical
assistance, accompaniment, and training in Biblical principles to a growing
number of Christians who earn their living from running a small business.
One of those Christians is Taylor
Chávez, a dedicated pastor and chicken salesman in the city of Chinandega who
has been participating in the business network for three years now. “The workshop titled ‘The Accounting of the
Orange Seller’ challenged me greatly,” says Taylor, “That practical and simple
study helped to open my accounting mind more for my business.”
The topic of accounting is a
difficult one for the majority of self-employed workers. They are used to doing the numbers for their
business “in their head” or in a small, informal notebook. This is principally because they consider
their business to be small and therefore, accounting isn’t necessary. Or it may just be that they don’t know how or
they don’t see the value in it.
But the practical workshops on accounting
offered by the “Kingdom Businesses” network are expanding minds and equipping
small businesspeople with some tools to grow.
“The next thing I would like to learn,” says Taylor, “Is how to audit my
business – even though I’m not an auditor.”
