My name is Isaac Wangila. I am a Kenyan man aged 35 years old married with a family. Currently, I live in Kitale Town, Trans-Nzoia County in the Northern part of the Rift Valley Region. I was brought up by a single parent since my mother died when I was a year; my father remarried; since I never got along with my stepmother, I went and stayed with an uncle who catered for my education up to Form four. Later on I moved to Nairobi in search of a job; fortunately I landed a job opportunity where I worked on casual basis; with the proceeds from this job, I managed to pay my tuition fee for an IT Course. After my course, I relocated to Kitale where I was employed in one of the local school as a tutor. Two years later, I started a local cyber cafe with just two computers. With my good public relation, I grew my market base with majority of my customers being teachers. I have had a lot of experience in this life. I always express my warm gratitude to all those who have helped me in my journey through life till this day. My aim in life is to become a social entrepreneur and grow my cyber café into a big ICT consultancy where I can open many branches in the whole of North Rift Region and nationwide. As a young man, my greatest philosophy has always been to be self employed; all along I had envisioned to link up with financial institutions that would help me grow. But when I was introduced to Zidisha, I have seen a breakthrough. Currently, my business is doing well courtesy of Zidisha. I have employed two staffs who assist me in the daily running of the business.
I run a cyber café within Kitale Town of Trans Nzoia County. It is a licensed business. I offer typesetting and printing services, Photocopying services, internet and emailing services and maintenance of computers.
After my college, I had the desire to venture into the IT market which was yet to be flooded in the Northern part of the Rift Valley thus I decided to settle in Kitale of Trans-Nzoia County.
During the day-to-day running of my business, I do incur some costs which range from Printing/ Photocopying Paper, Wages for my two assistants, rent, electricity bills, security, licence/ permit and wages.
The average daily turnover has risen from $40 to around $60 . Out this turnover, I do some savings which guarantees me repayment of the loan on time as per the repayment schedule; apart from that a fraction of it is ploughed back into the business and also support my family.
Due to the rising demand for ICT services which has been necessitated by the country's Vision 2030 agenda which envisions all Kenyans to be computer literate. With this in mind, I carried out a survey within my county on several upcoming town centres and I identified one strategic town called Kabuchai; which has several institutions around (i.e. a hospital, technical institute, polytechnic and several schools); all these institutions seek Cyber Cafe services from the nearest town which is about 5 km. I have already identified a business premise which I intend to set my business in. The area has a rich catchment which is ripe for my business and therefore I intend to be among the pioneer members.
With this loan, I intend to purchase all the necessary assets for the business, pay rent, pay for licence/ permit and purchase furniture.