William    Mar 23, 2014

I called her on Saturday22rdMarch at around 05.00 hrs ,She says that a misfortune befell her and her stock was stolen,She says she is trying to fin an alternative means of raising capital and promises to pay to every cent

williamjacobs    Feb 24, 2014

Dear Ms. Kimani,

Is there a status update on this loan? Repayments appear to have stopped Aug 29, 2013.
If we cannot get repaid (so we might re-lend to business owners like yourself), might we get a description of the issues you have faced? When loans just disappear like this, it can hurt the entire zidisha concept.

--Bill Jacobs

williamjacobs    Jan 30, 2013

Your plans to extend your line of merchandise sounds exciting since your business improved after successfully extending credit to customers.

We look forward to hearing of news and I think your supporters would also be happy to help with any advice you would like to ask, if you would ever like to hear ideas to solve problems you find. Having many minds working on a problem can be useful.

After all, your success is good for us too.

Best wishes,

--Bill Jacobs, USA

Vivien    Aug 17, 2012

Hello Lenders,

My name is Vivien Barbier and I’m a client relationship interns for Zidisha in Kenya. Today, I visited Mrs Rosemary Kimani in her shop in Nakuru where I also add the chance to meet one of her daughter and grandson.

Mrs. Kimani operates a small shop in the street that sells plumbers material and other hardware products. She is a wholesaler and do not sale on retail. Her job consists mainly of visiting the retail shop in the area to sell her products. Today, especially because of the meeting I had with her, she stayed on the shop and sent her employee on the field to sell and to collect payments. To stay competitive with other hardware suppliers, she often had to agree to be paid by her customers after a few days. She is doing only for customer that she knows well but this makes her business in need of a large working capital, which limits the growth of her business.

Using the loan of Zidisha, she was able to buy materials before receiving the orders from her customers. It allows her business to be much more efficient and competitive. Due to her good knowledge of the market she is able to predict demands and to order quantities required. In the future, she will request a bigger loan to Zidisha, so that she can increase further the size of her stock. She also wants to growth even more her business by adding electrical supplies to her product portfolio. She already has a small inventory of electrical supplies but it is too limited to make her a important player in the local market. She also plans to open a new shop in a better location; a new shopping mall that is currently being built. She already made the request for the boutique and is waiting for the answer of the real-estate developer.

Mrs Kimani and her family not always lived in Nakuru; they had a house in Kiptangwanyi but were forced to abandon it during the post election violence in 2007. They started a new life in Nakuru and pray that next year general election will be peaceful. I’m vey happy to see that she has been able to put her life back on track after such tragic events.

Even if she is a successful entrepreneur, Mrs Kimani doesn’t know how to use a computer or to speak English. Alice, her daughter will help her to interact with Zidisha. She is very thankful to all Zidisha lenders for them support. She told me several times, when I was in her shop, that what I was seeing had been made possible by Zidisha.

Vivien
17th August 2012
Nakuru, Kenya

Colin    Jan 26, 2012

How is it going with your business? Has the loan helped you get the things you planned on buying?

SKWAW    Jan 20, 2012

Good Luck with your business. :)

AWOL    Dec 21, 2011

How do you plan to boost your business and why?
I notice that only 10% of your loan amount has been raised and
that bidding closes in a few days. I think telling us more about
your plans, past history perhaps, might encourage more lenders
to support you.