The Great World Venture Limited
Above: Martin Mboha smiles from the driver's seat of a station wagon recently purchased by his business, The Great World Venture Limited.
Martin Mboha, a Kenyan entrepreneur, has a growing information technology business in Nairobi. But unlike other businesses, Martin’s company is a business as mission that seeks to combine business and ministry to bless its employees, customers and community.
Called The Great World Venture Limited, or GWVL, the company’s motto is “The Good News Everywhere.” Martin and his employees work to support the Kenyan-based organization Bible Translation and Literacy, which translates the Bible into lesser-known languages throughout the country.
“We are committed to give 20% of our profit to Bible Translation and Literacy over the first five years of our operation,” Martin wrote recently. At that point, GWVL plans to re-examine the needs of Bible translation in Kenya to determine if, and how, they should rework their support to better serve their community.
He added, “Our current strategy is to build a business-as-mission model in GWVL that can be replicated in other companies. Our vision is to help initiate and support at least 11 such new businesses.”
Martin’s company is the recipient of the first start-up loan provided by the JAARS Business as Mission program. Recently, Martin shared how this loan was used, what it has meant to his business, and ultimately, how it impacts Bible translation in Kenya.
"The loan from JAARS helped us to obtain the funds we needed to purchase a reliable vehicle for the business,” he wrote. “In Kenya, the lack of stable financial history for business start-ups is considered a high risk by banks and most lending institutions, so they would rather lend to established firms. The cost of obtaining credit is also very high, both in terms of collateral and interest rates. By partnering with JAARS, we were able to get the loan we needed at very reasonable rates.”
The station wagon purchased by GWVL is used for transporting equipment and technicians to service their clients’ computer and information technology needs. The vehicle is also used for marketing and Christian ministry, an essential part of their overall focus to impact their community.
Before purchasing the new vehicle, GWVL had to hire taxi services to transport their equipment and service personnel. The process was expensive and often left them unable to make timely visits to their customers.
“Now we have become more efficient and reliable to our clients,” he wrote, “as we have more control over our schedules and confidence when we promise to be there. We are also able to service long-distance clients for the first time.”
To read more about Martin and GWVL, please read the Winter 2009 issue of Rev. 7. If you are interested in helping Christian businesspeople like Martin as they support Bible translation, please click here to read about our revolving loan project.
