Kabir_Lakhanpal
Kabir Lakhanpal
My Business Training
Ladi Abdulahamid Balteh
About Ladi Abdulahamid Balteh
Ladi Abdulahamid Balteh, fondly known as Maman Khalifa or Aunty Ladi, is a devoted mother, wife, and aspiring entrepreneur from Gidan Gona in Bauchi State, Nigeria.
Motivated by a strong sense of duty to her family and neighbors, she dreams of opening Farha Provision Store, a fully stocked shop offering essential food and household items. Her vision is rooted in compassion, service, and empowerment.
Through this business, Ladi hopes to achieve financial stability while inspiring other women in her community to pursue their dreams with resilience, determination, and a sense of purpose.
Ladi Abdulahamid Balteh
Business Goals
Ladi’s business is rooted in loyalty, perseverance, honesty, and care for her community. Farha Provision Store, named after her youngest daughter, will reflect her story of resilience and her desire to serve others with dignity and respect.
Located in the heart of Gidan Gona, the shop will feature an off-white exterior with a bold sign in blue, pink, and red. Ladi plans to stock essential items like food, toiletries, and baby supplies, with hopes of expanding into clothing.
Her goal is to build a trusted neighborhood shop that offers both convenience and comfort to local families.
Ladi Abdulahamid Balteh
Obstacles
With seven years of experience in retail, Ladi has built strong business skills through hands-on learning and customer interaction. She started selling from home and developed a loyal customer base.
Her university education helped her with recordkeeping and accounting. However, her biggest challenge is securing capital to open a physical shop and expand inventory. Balancing motherhood with business growth is also difficult.
Without funding for equipment like a power generator and freezer, her product range is limited, which has slowed her plans to transition from home sales to a fully operational store.
Ladi Abdulahamid Balteh
Our Partnership
Ladi is seeking support from Leadership Initiatives through funding to purchase start-up inventory, a power generator, commercial freezer, shelving, and a secure shop location. She also hopes to receive mentorship and business training to improve her skills.
Her needs are urgent, but her determination makes her an ideal candidate for support. Ladi’s goal is to grow her store into a thriving business that sustains her family and creates jobs for local youth and women.
She dreams of completing her home, educating her children, and being remembered as a hardworking, independent woman who uplifted her 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 Ladi Abdulahamid Balteh to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Ladi 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 Ladi to optimize their business through a new budget and financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Ladi 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, Ladi Abdulahamid Balteh, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration and helped us better understand Ladi’s background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Ladi 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 Swedish Embassy, where I gained insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between Sweden 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 Swedish 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.
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 Carla Brooks, Business and Development Officer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. She gave us a crash course in marketing and advertising, breaking down the key elements of what makes a campaign actually work. Her insights helped us think bigger and more strategically about how to position our partner’s business for success.
With support from Ms. Brooks 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. Their guidance helped us take our business proposal to the next level creating a plan designed not only to launch a venture, but to transform our business partner’s future.