Pledged business

Msingi Mbao Studio

Furniture maker · Mombasa, Kenya

Pledge certificate · P-TR-BS

Buy Small

Msingi Mbao Studio promises: At least 1 in 5 of our supplier dollars goes to independent small businesses.

Amina Salim, Owner

Effective 2026-08-19 · A yearly supplier-spend summary.

Verification history

Self-declared. Not yet checked.

Our story

<p>Msingi Mbao Studio makes compact desks, stools, and shelves for homes and small offices in Mombasa. The owner joined Buy Small because the business relies on local craftspeople but had never measured how much of its purchasing reached independent suppliers. It now reviews monthly spending and directs at least 20 percent of supplier dollars to small, independently owned businesses. The studio began with a modest change: it shifted selected sanding, upholstery, and packaging orders to three nearby workshops after checking their capacity and work samples. It kept a second supplier for each critical input so that the pledge would not compromise delivery commitments. Over six months, 23 percent of supplier spend went to independent businesses, and two of the new partners received repeat orders. The team says the tracking exercise uncovered capable local suppliers it had overlooked. The owner plans to review the figure quarterly and share the results with staff, rather than treating the target as a one-time campaign.</p>

Councils

Trade Council

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