From Debt Collector to Healthcare Manufacturer | Simon Maina

Every quarter, Simon Maina's company manufactures nearly 300,000 obstetric drapes across Africa. The surprising part is not the scale. It's the economics. Njembuma operates on margins of roughly 3%, selling affordable medical products designed to detect postpartum hemorrhage, one of the leading causes of maternal deaths across the continent. Before healthcare manufacturing, Simon spent years in debt collection. Then COVID disrupted everything. What started as a temporary pivot into PPE imports eventually became a social enterprise serving hospitals in nine African countries and Yemen. In this episode Simon breaks down what it really takes to build a mission-driven company in Africa: raising capital without investors, surviving cash-flow crises, navigating government procurement, selling personal assets to buy machinery, and balancing social impact with commercial reality. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Access all our links in one place: ⁠⁠https://lnk.bio/Financially_Inc⁠ 💹 Ready to start trading? 🧑‍🏫 Learn how to trade: https://lnk.bio/fxpesa 📲 Open a demo trading account: https://bit.ly/DemoAccountYT 📈 Start live trading: https://bit.ly/LiveAccountYT --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:14 Simon's early career in accounting 07:36 Building a debt collection business 14:12 When COVID changed everything 20:05 Discovering the PPE opportunity 26:47 The hospital moment that sparked the idea 33:21 Building the first obstetric drapes 40:18 Landing the first major order 46:52 Why the margins are only 3% 53:11 Selling assets to keep the business alive 58:34 Scaling production across Africa 01:04:27 Working with governments and NGOs 01:09:42 Cash flow, manufacturing and expansion 01:13:38 The future of Njembuma