Agnes Massawe holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration as well as a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a specialization in marketing. She has twenty years of work experience, mainly with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). She has worked as a community developer and trained members of poor communities in Dar es Salaam in matters relating to the establishment and management of SMEs and poverty alleviation. She has also worked with women groups, which gave her the feel of the financing problems that are faced by such groups. During all this time, she was heavily involved in organizing community development and training activities where she experienced what disappointments and failures meant to those involved. She also learned that it is not easy to solve the deep-seated problems of poverty.
However, she witnessed several, though few, instances of success by the relevant poor communities in their endeavor to set up business ventures. These instances of success inspired her to want to see how such successes could be replicated and put to scale. Her greatest ambition is to contribute substantially to improved livelihood in Africa.