Stationery and internet services

Entrepreneur

About Me

I am James Kuria Kungu. Last born in a family of 3 siblings; 2 ladies and one gentleman. I have two female siblings. I was born on 2nd February 1987 in Nyandarua county. I am an industrious young person. I come from Gilgil sub county, Nakuru County in Kenya. I went to Langalanga primary school and Utumishi primary school in Gilgil Sub County. I proceeded to Koelel secondary school in Gilgil Sub County for my secondary education. I obtained a mean grade of B+ and joined Moi University in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County for 4-year course in Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics and Resource Management. I attained a mean grade of second class (upper division) in the degree and graduated in august 2012. I joined Seed Savers Network, a farmers’ association, volunteering in agricultural extension services for 8 months before full employment in January 2013. Currently, I am pursuing a Masters of Business Administration degree specializing in Strategic Management at Kenyatta University, Nakuru county campus.
My hobbies include reading articles, watching news and discovery documentaries and hiking. My salary is used in self-advancement through purchase of various basic goods such as food, rent, transport, and clothing. I have also established a small stationery business in Gilgil Sub County, Langalanga village. The business deals with sale of stationeries, photocopy, computer, and internet services. I invested an initial capital of US$500 and established the business in January 2014. The initial capital was obtained from personal savings and donations from parents. I established the business with an aim of easing access to computer services. The government of Kenya has been encouraging youths to establish businesses that will help in providing digital service such as computer services in rural towns. This inspired me to establish the business. Currently, the business has average monthly revenue of US$130. The estimated monthly costs are US$95. The costs include labor, rent, power, water, and replacement of stock. Currently, I have one employee at the business. Some of the key customers are schools, which purchase stationery products and do printing and photocopying of various materials such as exams and registration forms for students. The profits from the business are reinvested in the business to help in expansion. I have plans of expanding the business since Gilgil is experiencing an influx of primary and secondary schools both private and public. This has transformed Gilgil Sub County into an educational sub county. Thus, there is hope for increase in the number of customers in the future.

My Business

Seed Savers Network is an association of farmers registered at the office of attorney general in 2009 to bring together farmers who save seeds in Kenya. Our membership main benefit is access to non-hybrid seed exchange network. Organization agenda include hunting for and introducing new technologies with aim of improving rural livelihood. Our training centre, seed bank, indigenous crops production demonstration garden and office is situated in Gilgil 600m from Lake Elementaita at the main Entrance to Lake Elementaita (A UN heritage site) along Nairobi Nakuru Highway. Our growing paid membership currently stands at 720 represented by 5 board members, 3 women 2 men and a secretariat of six officers working with over 6000 farmers in various extension activities.
Currently, Seed Savers Network is carrying out various projects in agriculture and sustainable energy. Some of the projects include seed and seedling farming, training organic farming, construction of biogas digesters, farming high value crops and training programs on sustainable energy. The seed and seedling farming project is for orphaned crops such as cassava, arrowroots, dolicos, pumpkins, black nightshade, amaranthus and pigeon peas among others. The project is carried out in Nakuru and Nyandarua counties. The project on farming high value crops is done in Kiambu County in collaboration Sustainable Energy Company where farmers grow strawberry, broccoli and tree tomato for sale. The training on organic farming is a continuous activity in different areas depending on farmers demand. The training on sustainable energy is in Naivasha Sub County where we are training farmers on alternative energy sources such as energy saving jikos, kuni mbili jiko, solar lanterns, and biogas digesters.
I am implementing two projects; Seed and seedling farming and training on sustainable energy in Nakuru and Nyandarua County. There is a lot of interest from farmers in adopting new technologies in sustainable energy because of reduction in energy costs incurred by households. There is also interest in embracing the indigenous food crops that have been orphaned since they help in identifying our culture and they are drought resistant. In the seed and seedling farming project, farmer groups grow and sell seeds and seedlings of the orphaned crops to other farmers in the village and across the sub county and county. The seed and seedling farming project is funded by Tudor Trust from UK and has a constant monthly salary of US$375. The training on sustainable energy project is funded by World Vision and has a daily allowance of US$24. This is because the trainings are done on any three days of the week depending on agreement with the farmer groups. A minimum of two trainings should be done every month. The trainings include both basic and capacity building.

Loan Proposal

The loan will be used in expanding the stationery, photocopy and internet services business through addition of new stocks. The money will be used to buy stationery internet services as follows:
Printing papers - $ 50
A4, A5, A6 Envelopes - $10
Notebooks - $10
Internet service - $20
The purchase of the above items will help in increasing the stock and improving the access to internet services at the business. The revenues generated from the business and income from my work will be used in repaying the loan. I expect the business to expand in the long run and earn higher revenue.

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