Third-culture African founder building brands (and a life) across the continent, in public.
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Building a financial paper trail from day one
"You have a great idea, Binja, but with no paper trail and no assets to put up as collateral, we cannot fund this." That is what the bank told me the day I pitched them Kivu Brand Architects.
The diaspora banking associate I met spoke in a tone somewhere between condescending and bewildered, as if I had walked in with a business plan and a hope as collateral and expected to leave with funding. I asked what it would take for the bank to fund my venture. She said: you need a paper trail.
That is where my obsession began: building a financial structure that would be sound for my business and attractive to future investors.
Managing the money was already the part of launching Kivu Brand that daunted me most. I never doubted that the idea was sound, that I would have to work extra hard to sell it, or that it would make money.
The spreadsheets and the taxes were what worried me. Knowing they had to be followed meticulously, I put several systems in place to make sure every transaction could be traced.
Let me take a step back. Why did it matter so much to manage Kivu Brand's money properly?
1. Because of how African founders are seen by financiers.
My meeting at the bank was one small example of a much larger pattern: African small businesses are chronically under-financed. The African Development Bank (AfDB) puts the annual financing gap for small and medium enterprises at roughly $330 billion, and formal SMEs receive less than 20% of the credit they need [1][2].
Weak documentation is part of the story. In a 2022 report on Kenya by Wylde International, only 45% of SMEs that applied for credit over three years received it, and missing bookkeeping and business records were among the reasons listed [3]. A Ugandan banker says it plainly: lenders judge whether you can repay by looking at your books [4]. I wanted Kivu Brand to be able to show its books.
2. Because credibility compounds.
Internally, I want my team to feel financially secure: there should never be a doubt that their monthly pay arrives, and on time. Externally, I want financial institutions, international investors and government bodies to find our company worthy of their trust.
Lenders say that without reliable records they cannot assess cash flow or repayment capacity, and that audited accounts and clean financial statements are what open doors [4][5]. To grow Kivu Brand into the powerhouse I envision, the finances have to be managed meticulously.
3. Because I am an African woman building in public.
I want to structure my business so that other women can evaluate it, copy it or build on it. In my conversations with women in business, very few keep proper records, and that makes it harder to access loans, investment and credit lines.
The numbers show why it matters: the AfDB says women own about 40% of African SMEs but receive less than 20% of available financing [2], and it estimates a $42 billion financing gap for African women entrepreneurs, which it links to a lack of collateral such as land and property [6].
That was exactly what I was missing at the bank counter, and a paper trail is what I could build instead. In the DRC, a World Bank pilot study found that only 3.6% of women-led firms have a bank loan, against 10.2% of male-led firms [7].
It links the gap partly to the old Family Code, which for years required a husband's permission for married women to sign contracts, register companies, open bank accounts or obtain loans (a new Family Code was adopted in June 2016), and partly to women's lower levels of business training, financial literacy and access to professional networks [7]. Kivu Brand has to continue building in public to beat these odds.
4. Because of taxes.
Taxes, and THE MAN, are obviously a reason too, especially in Congo, where the tax system can feel like a black hole one day and a game of whack-a-mole the next. Let’s be honest, I’m not trying to get in trouble with the government!
These are the main reasons I have kept strict financial records since the beginning. Because the systems I set up would shape my business's financial future, I have built several processes over the years to prove our financial credibility, so that we can become the global brand we are building.
The four systems I use
1. A financial app, after I outgrew Excel.
As a techie, I knew I needed an easy way to track every dollar going in and out, and since I barely had a budget, I needed a tool I could grow with. I began by running the business strictly in an Excel sheet.
Reconciling income and expenses at the end of each month, which took at least four days, was the bane of my existence … and I am not exaggerating.
I was in the weeds, and I dreaded it. Finding the right app became a must: it saved me time and energy, took away the end-of-month frustration, and made watching the business grow, a far less painful process. Here is what I looked for in a tool:
- Income and expense lines: when a client pays and when the company spends.
- Expense tags by client, so I know which cost belongs to which client.
- Tracking of salary and bonus payments to my team.
- Date and time stamps on every income and expense line.
- Visual reports, such as a graph or pie chart of income and expenses.
- Export of the full financial history to Excel or PDF.
The apps that have helped me get through are: Budget, Accounting and QuickBooks – all of which can be found on the App Stores.
2. An accountant.
At some point you have to bring in the experts. For me, that was as we entered our third year. As momentum built, we needed to be compliant, both internally, for our own audits, and with the government, meaning taxes.
The accountant we still use came as a recommendation from a fellow Congolese businesswoman, Laetitia of Le Miel Design, and we have worked together ever since.
At the start he cost $400 a month, and we worked together on that basis for four months to set everything up. Since then, I bring him in as needed and he now costs between $200 and $500 a month, depending on the month and the need.
I cannot overstate the importance of working with someone who knows the ins and outs of tax laws and how crucial it is for your business!
3. Separate personal and business bank accounts.
Keeping the two apart is vital to a business's credibility, and it is standard advice for building a financial history that lenders can read [5].
I learned it the hard way. At the beginning I had only my purse. I had not even opened a bank account in those early days, so I used company funds for personal expenses, which was a BIG MISTAKE. When I hired my first employee, I found myself struggling to pay them on time because I had taken money from the business for a lunch or dinner with a friend here and there.
Rookie mistakes like that got me in trouble with my team, and that was when I knew I had to grow up financially and build a separation of church and state. Today I pay myself as an employee.
I don't dip into the company account like a personal piggy bank, because that is how businesses fail. I opened the business account knowing I wanted to demonstrate that we are creditworthy, even though lending to African women is still rare [2][6], and I have kept the business faithful to that goal.
4. A payment app that traces every transaction.
I pay my team through a locally built app called illicocash. Every payment is date- and time-stamped, so any dispute about a late or missing payment can be settled with facts.
That keeps conversations objective and builds trust and a culture of safety: the company is not out to short you.
Where to start if you are launching
- Log every payment in and out from day one, even in a spreadsheet, and move to an app before month-end reconciliation eats days of your time.
- Open a separate business bank account before your first invoice.
- Pay yourself a salary instead of drawing from the business.
- Bring in an accountant before you think you need one.
These are some of the ways I built a financial paper trail from our company’s beginning. Over on my Substack, Africancocktales, I share in detail the Excel sheets I used at the start, plus some finance app suggestions to help you launch and grow. Let’s keep the conversation going over there.
Sources
[1] Business Report (South Africa), 10 April 2025, citing the AfDB: https://iol.co.za/business-report/entrepreneurs/2025-04-10-unlocking-market-access-for-africas-small-businesses-the-road-to-growth-22-on-sloane/
[2] The Citizen (Tanzania), AfDB country representative: https://thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/business/afdb-calls-for-innovative-financing-to-unlock-africa-s-sme-potential-5241350
[3] Kenyans.co.ke, on the Wylde International 2022 report: https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/75846-13-reasons-kenyan-entrepreneurs-are-denied-loans
[4] Daily Monitor (Uganda), Centenary Bank manager: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/business/finance/lack-of-records-limiting-smes-access-to-credit-1599740
[5] Leadership (Nigeria), on SME accounting practices: https://leadership.ng/?p=604968
[6] Business Daily Africa, on the AfDB AFAWA facility: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/corporate/companies/afdb-to-give-women-smes-sh218bn-loans-3291228
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