Name
James
Member since
January 2015
On-time repayments
87 installments • 53%
I am a father of three and a husband to one. I grew up in the hills of Muranga in Central province and I am the 3rd born of my 7 siblings. I had a very humble childhood, I used to do farming with my parents and that's how we were brought up by the produce from the farm being sold to take care of the family expenses and education as well as other needs.
I schooled in a public primary and secondary school and later joined a college where I did my CPA. Through out my life I have been selling produce to support myself through education and my younger siblings as well as help my parents.
I used to wake up very early to milk the cows and also get feed for the goats and cows and water them before I could now go to school or do anything else that day. That slowly became a routine and to add on that was the farming which was the core business of the family.
Through the farming of produce for sale that's how I came to start my own business since I had acquired the experience through time.
Muranga is a very beautiful county that is very hilly and green and is especially known for banana growing which does extremely well. The people here are also very warm and hospitable and anyone feels at home when they are in our county.
My children are grown up and now they are studying in various fields, one is soon to finish her course in Radiology and once she finished she will become a radiologist, my son is also on his way to finish his bachelor in IT and my last born daughter is just starting her law course and hopes to be an advocate once she completes her education.
My past time hobbies are traveling which I love to do when I get the time and I also like playing some Volleyball.
I am mainly in fruit vending and I usually buy fruits from the farms and sell in the market and other retailers. I also do my own banana farming which does very well here. In Kenya people have really become health conscious and thus take a lot of fruits and thus the fruit market has really grown significantly.
This has really boosted my business since I get fruits from the farm and without having to go through middlemen and thus I promote the farmer through the prices that I buy and then I sell to the market and I have been able to create supply to the urban city of Nairobi.
The costs that I have to incur are transport and capital for the produce as well as the licenses involved in the transportation industry.
The profits that I get I use them to pay my children's school fee, take care of my household expenses and also run my banana farm. Also I am saving for my home construction since I live in a rented house and I have a piece of land which I eventually want to start constructing towards the end of the year.
I am looking to hire some land so that I can be able to expand my plantation and grow other kinds of fruits because there is a high demand for fruits in the market. I want to add tree tomato into the plantation because my clients are asking for the same and thus I have guaranteed orders once the fruit is ready. Currently I have to source it from other farmers and it still does not meet the demand I have. The benefit of this is increased profits of about 8% and also I will be able to take care of my family needs. The land will cost me about $100 to rent for a whole year and the seedlings will cost me $0.5 each and I will start with about 100 trees and $42 will go into purchase of fertilizer and manure and labor will cost about $30 dollars for planting. I have my personal savings that I had put aside which I will use to add to take care of part of the labor and for the water bill for irrigation. I am requesting Zidisha community to fund me as I cannot be able to meet the full cost of my project alone and I thank you for the previous loan which has enabled me to do so much and I was able to pay back without any problems from the profits I made from the previous loan and have some which I saved up for this new project.
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Project Type
Classic Loan
Disbursed amount
$201.00
Date disbursed
May 15, 2015
Repayment status
On Time
Projected term
18 months
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