Diego_Taborda
Diego Taborda
My Business Training
Muhammad Albashir Tahir
About Muhammad Albashir Tahir
Muhammad Albashir Tahir, known as Malancy, is a determined young entrepreneur from Bauchi State, Nigeria, passionate about mobile technology and community service.
At 23 years old, he has made significant strides in cellphone repair and sales through dedication and hard work. Driven by a dream to open his own shop, Jambil Communication, Albashir combines real-world experience, mentorship, and business administration knowledge.
He envisions a vibrant, customer-focused shop offering high-quality products at affordable prices. His goal is to create a welcoming space that reflects his cultural values while serving the diverse needs of his community.
Muhammad Albashir Tahir
Business Goals
Albashir’s business is driven by values of honesty, affordability, community support, and excellence in service. He believes in building long-term relationships with customers and ensuring satisfaction through reliable products and respectful service.
His vision is to grow Jambil Communication into a well-recognized brand that not only thrives locally but also inspires other young entrepreneurs in the region.
Remaining true to his roots and putting service before profit, he strives to build a sustainable business that embodies his personal journey and family legacy. He plans to provide phones, accessories, software installation, upgrades, and repair services to a wide range of customers.
Muhammad Albashir Tahir
Obstacles
Albashir developed his cellphone repair and retail skills under the mentorship of a local expert, Muhammad. Over one year, he trained in customer service, mobile software upgrades, hardware repair, and product management.
With more than three years of experience, he now sells fairly used phones, memory cards, MP3 speakers, screen guards, power banks, and accessories to students, farmers, and civil servants.
Despite strong financial management skills, Albashir’s biggest challenge is lack of startup capital and limited access to affordable credit. Limited stock, no permanent shop, market competition, and family financial responsibilities hinder his business growth.
Muhammad Albashir Tahir
Our Partnership
Albashir is seeking mentorship, business training, and financial support from Leadership Initiatives to design his shop, promote his brand, and develop a sustainable long-term strategy.
He requires capital to purchase inventory such as phones, accessories, and repair tools, along with assistance to cover rent for a dedicated shop space. Guidance in marketing, customer engagement, and financial planning would significantly enhance his growth potential.
His long-term goals include supporting his family, improving their living conditions, funding his siblings’ education, acquiring a motorcycle, training apprentices, and building a thriving business that creates opportunities within his community.
My Grant Proposal Presentation
As part of the International Leadership and Business Internship, I collaborated with top development experts to help grow and strengthen my business partner’s infrastructure.
At the end of the program, my team presented our final proposal to a panel of judges from the Leadership Initiatives Grant Committee. This formal pitch allowed us to apply our entrepreneurial skills, showcase our strategic plan, and advocate for meaningful change in our partner’s business.
Our team was awarded a grant that will fund the implementation of our business partner’s plan, providing life-changing support that will expand operations, improve financial stability, and create new growth opportunities. Over the next year, this grant will help transform the future of their business and improve the quality of life for both the entrepreneur and their community.
My Grant Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Muhammad Albashir Tahir to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Muhammad has leveraged their skills and years of experience to create their business, they face obstacles hindering the expansion of their work.
Guided by their vision, we crafted a proposal detailing the infrastructure materials that would support the growth of their business. We devised a plan that would allow Muhammad to optimize their business through a new budget and financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Muhammad to allocate funds toward essential materials and equipment, supporting the optimization of their services. Effective financial tracking will be crucial for managing growing profits and preserving assets, ensuring the business’s long-term growth and stability.
Internship Highlights
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Muhammad Albashir Tahir, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration and helped us better understand Muhammad’s background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Muhammad gave us the insight we needed to begin brainstorming practical, personalized solutions. Each morning, our team held focused discussions to refine our ideas, reflect on expert advice from the day before, and adjust our timeline to move our plans forward efficiently.
Throughout the process, on-staff project coordinators and business development experts guided us, helping us ask the right questions and turn our ideas into meaningful, actionable strategies.
I had the unique opportunity to visit the Swiss Embassy, where I gained insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Switzerland and the United States.
The embassy functions as a center for international collaboration, working with partner countries and global organizations to address pressing issues such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change. Through this visit, I learned how diplomats engage in meaningful dialogue and policy development to create sustainable, people-focused solutions.
Officials from the Swiss Embassy shared how they partner with local communities to identify needs and implement programs that empower individuals and strengthen long-term development. This commitment to community-driven impact inspired my team and me as we worked to develop our own business proposal focused on creating lasting change."
Throughout the internship, our team had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with top experts in business and economic development from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
One of the highlights was a session with Gerald Gangaram, a decorated Apache helicopter pilot & leadership expert. He gave us a crash course in leadership and decision making, breaking down the key elements of what makes an effective leader. His insights helped us think bigger and more strategically about how to position our partner’s business for success.
With support from Mr. Gangaram and other global leaders, we sharpened our ideas, refined our strategy, and built a powerful pitch deck to present at the end of the week.
To further enhance our presentation and proposal, our team had the unique opportunity to partner with a business and development mentor with immense experience in the fields of finance, development, business management, and more.
With support from our mentor, we were able to craft key questions for our business partners that enabled us to design an effective SWOT analysis that guided our work throughout the week. Following the completion of the SWOT analysis, our mentor worked alongside us to hone our ideas and proposal recommendations that would provide funding and new marketing materials for our partner.
At the end of the week, our mentor supported our slide deck design and gave us instrumental feedback as we practiced pitching our ideas and proposals. This feedback directly contributed to our receiving support from the Leadership Initiatives’ Board of Directors and Guest Judges to implement our microgrant and marketing designs.