Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Margaret Njeri Kamau. I am a Kenyan citizen. I was born in 1971 at Kitiri Village of Nyandarua County. I was raised in a family of eight children; three girls and five boys. I went to Mitamaiyu Primary School in 1980 where I schooled up to Standard Seven. I then transferred to Kitogo Primary where I finished in 1987. I joined Magumu High School in 1988 and finished in 1991. After completion of my Secondary School I was employed at Havake Enterprise as a sales lady until 1996. I later joined Dairy Training Institute (D.T.I) College - Naivasha for a Diploma in Dairy Technology in 1997. In June 1999, upon completion of the course, I was employed by Irala Dairies (Rongai) as a Yogurt/Mala/Culture Maker. I left Irala Dairies in 2001 and started a small Bookshop which I later converted it to M-pesa Shop, where commodity involved is Money. This is so because the transactions involve deposits and withdrawals since it offers Mobile Banking Services. I am married, with three kids, all Schooling. I am a full resident of Rongai – Rongai District, Nakuru County since we have settled on plot we purchased and developed with my husband.

The earnings I get help me increase the stock (Money) thus helping me generate more earnings. They also help me improve the living standards of my family. It is also from the earnings that we were able to combine with my husband’s earnings to acquire the plot where we are living. I am sure more is on the way if I can get financial assistance from other sources.

My Business

I am current running M-Pesa Business at the Centre of Rongai Township. I normally serve an average of 50 customers per day. The number of transactions and amount transacted determine the amount (commission) I get at the end of the month from Safaricom Mobile Services Company who introduced these services. On average I get a commission of Ksh. 14,000. Since the business involves money deposits and withdrawals, my stock is money and again this dictates the number of customers served and amount transacted. I normally operate with Ksh. 50,000. Any addition on this means additional in commission hence increasing my net income. Expenses total to Ksh. 4,000 i.e. House Rent, Electricity and Water Bills. My monthly net income is Ksh. 10,000.

Since business offers banking services, it operates just like Banks hence the demand is high since this is banking services brought closer to the people.

My customers prefer my premises due to the kind of services offered and how they are offered. Since I believe that ‘customer is always right’ I have to handle them with a lot of care. I must use filtered and polite language to them. They really enjoy when I am serving them. I have a Waiting Bench where they normally queue while I am serving others, an indication that they are happy with my services.

The main challenge I get is from conmen/women who pretend to be from the Service Provider (Safaricom) and try to do fraud us money.

Loan Proposal

Since my business offers banking services & operates just like Banks i.e. through deposits and withdrawals, I am going to pump all the money there. This is because in M-pesa business, the amount of stock is the amount of money one has. This money will automatically raise the number of transaction I will be making per day. The more the money the more the number of transactions and definitely this will double the commission I’ll be getting every month. In short the commission is determined by the number of transactions made (both deposits and withdrawals) and amount transacted per transaction. Since I normally operate with Ksh. 50,000, any addition on this means an increase in my net income.

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