Maize for my flour mill

Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Ngoja Nyawa - born in Kwale County in the Coast region of Kenya. I was born in a big family of nine and I am the 5th born. Kwale is a semi-arid area where the main activity is subsistence farming. It is in this environment that I was born 45 years ago and I had to endure a lot of hardships because my parents could hardly cope with raising the big family.

However, I navigated safely into adulthood largely due to assistance given by government in form of relief food and other basic needs. I did eight years of primary school but unfortunately I could not proceed further due to lack of school fees.

I later moved to Mombasa city where I started working in construction sites to earn a living. I made some savings which I used to take me to a technical college for a course in building technology where I qualified as a building technician.

I got a job in a local school academy as a building maintenance staff and then promoted to a maintenance supervisor. I worked there for nine years and decided to go back home to start a posho mill business which I am still doing.

I am married with 6 children aged between 5-19 years.

My Business

I run a posho mill business. This business entails converting dry maize to maize floor which is the staple food in Kenya. I buy maize from local farmers during harvest time and then store it for milling when needed. I normally serve the local community- most of whom a low income earners who can hardly afford flour from well established millers.

The flour is preferred because it is cheap and more nutritious than the other refined brands and it is slowly gaining acceptance even from the middle class. I make a total profit of about $250 after covering my overheads (mostly diesel, engine oil and general maintenance of the milling machine).

This is money that I use to support my family including their education and general upkeep.

Loan Proposal

I need to increase stock for my business as there is no farm produce from the local area due to a prolonged drought which has hit this area for the past close to 10 months. So the demand for Maize flour being our staple food has increased thereby making the demand also for more dry maize stock to cope with the existing maize flour. I therefore feel i need a loan to by more dry maize from the market stores and supplement whatever is in my store and be able to cope with the demand.

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