Sulema with one of her cows on her farm in Bolivia — Sulema, a Bolivian cheesemaker, with her favorite cow, Lola. “We always give names to the cows, so they listen when we call their name,” she says.

Bolivian entrepreneurs get ahead with inclusive financial services

How ongoing access to affordable lending products creates more opportunities for Sulema’s cheese business

Sulema Quispe Coca wakes at 5 a.m. She has cheese to make. The dairy farmer and cheesemaker has been building her business for nearly two decades. She starts her day with her cows, bringing them into a shed to be milked. Sulema calls each by name — Lola, her favorite and the most affectionate; Luna, born on a Monday; Mayra, the “mean” one. “We always give names to the cows, so they listen when we call their name,” she says.

Sulema’s business is growing thanks to her hard work and the support of long-term access to responsible financial services from BancoSol. BancoSol is a longtime partner of Accion and one of the world’s leading microfinance institutions. Though Sulema had few assets and limited credit history when she first approached them, BancoSol was able to issue her a loan to kickstart her business. She promptly invested in more cows to expand her herd. More than 15 years later, she’s still working with BancoSol to support her business.

*Sulema’s son Johnny and her father with their milking machine. The automated milking machine cuts the time needed to milk a cow in half, from 15 minutes down to seven.*

“We’ve made good use of the money from BancoSol,” she says. “I’ve expanded my business and even built this little house. I chose to work with BancoSol to get more money to buy more cows, to grow my business, to expand.” This is exactly the goal of BancoSol, which has supported over five million microprojects since its founding in 1986. Sulema’s father helped build her house, and he looks forward to continuing to work on it as her business continues to succeed.

With the cows milked, Sulema brings the fresh milk back home and begins making cheese. “Before, I used to deliver milk, but not anymore. [My customers] don’t want much milk,” she says. But her cheese is in high demand. Dry-salted and hand-shaped, the crumbly cheese can be enjoyed on its own or eaten with vegetables or meat dishes. Sulema sells to local bakeries, in markets, or directly to long-standing customers who reach her by phone.

After stirring rennet into the fresh milk so curds can form, Sulema and her son Johnny take a motorbike and cart — another improvement financed with a BancoSol loan — to retrieve water from the well. What used to be a long walk with heavy buckets is now quick work with the bike and cart. She waters the cows and feeds them sorghum and chaff grown from seeds bought with BancoSol’s support and cut by Johnny with a loan-financed harvester, making another time-consuming task easier and more productive.

These services have helped Sulema improve daily life for herself and expand her business, creating new opportunities for her family. Before becoming a cheesemaker, Sulema was a laborer in a nearby town and struggled to provide for her family. She says, “With this business, my son was able to go to university. In the morning, he helps me fetch water, and we used to carry it in buckets. Now, we use the motorbike cart. Before, we would cut the grass by hand, but now we use machines, which is faster. He’s been able to study thanks to these changes.”

When the animals are cared for, Johnny leaves to study law and Sulema returns to making cheese. She separates the curds from the whey and begins shaping it into discs with her palms. The work makes her nostalgic, as it’s a process she learned from her late mother. “My mother taught me how to make cheese, and she sent me to the market to sell when I was young,’” she recalls.

*Sulema separates cheese curds from whey. She learned to make cheese from her mother, who also encouraged her to make it her livelihood.*

Her mother was also entrepreneurial and a savvy businesswoman who first suggested that Sulema take out a loan to buy more cows. Sulema remembers, “She said, ‘You’ll make more money, and you’ll save more, and you’ll make more cheese with that money. You’ll save even more, and you’ll make more cheese.’ She used to sell a lot of cheese. I used to have only one cow, and I didn’t make much cheese. But then, I got a loan, and I bought more cows. I earned more.” The loan helped Sulema shift from subsistence farming to producing 55 to 60 pieces of cheese for sale each day.

Just as BancoSol has helped Sulema’s farm change over time, Accion has helped BancoSol evolve to better meet the needs of its customers. In recent years, we worked together to identify and address the challenges Bolivian microentrepreneurs faced when adopting digital financial technology, then create products that overcome those barriers, thus promoting financial inclusion and economic growth.

An innovation center helped BancoSol analyze customer data to create new products, and Accion’s support helped them roll out new digital tools, including an improved mobile banking app and a gamification framework that boosted digital adoption and customer engagement by rewarding users for saving money, making digital payments, and repaying loans on time. These tools help reach more underserved microentrepreneurs and individuals in emerging markets and further our mission to develop and scale responsible digital financial solutions for underserved people globally, so they can make informed decisions and improve their lives.

*Sulema’s family with their cows. Cows were the first thing she purchased with a loan from BancoSol.*

Sulema has seen these benefits: “I pay my electricity bill and savings to the bank. I no longer need to carry cash; I transfer the money with my cellphone through their app. It’s more convenient, and it saves me time. I don’t have to go to the bank. I have no cash at home; I just keep it in my account.”

With her business thriving and a strong partnership with BancoSol, Sulema sees more opportunities for her farm and family. She hopes to finish building her house. Then she’ll buy a car and use it to travel. “A nice little house, a decent car,” she says. More cows will follow, and more equipment to expand her production. The work will be hard but worthwhile.

“I want to get ahead,” she says. “That’s what we’re working for.”

Learn more about how Accion and BancoSol are transforming microfinance and promoting digital financial inclusion in Bolivia.