My Name is Samson Kiriago. I am from an average family. I earn a living through vegetable farming and CPA training/Coaching.

With full Certified Public Accountants(CPA) qualification and a B.Sc in Agricultural Economics & Resource Management, I started as a trainer at Kisii College of Accountancy, where I trained for 2 years. Over this period I found it difficult to depend on my monthly earnings which were Kes. 10,000 then. As an entrepreneur I decided to look for a way of getting extra income by identifying only the working group that I could teach from the comfort of their homes over the weekends and some evenings , which earned me more income, this is how I started working on my own. Through determination, I learnt a hard way to get clients/in a town that is flooded by several commercial colleges. I saved some amount that for the two years which I used to buy a quarter piece of land in the outskirts of Kitale town, along Kitale Kapenguria Road next opposite Chematich Primary School; 3 kilometers from Maili Saba centre a junction joining Saiwa Swamp in Kitale.

I relocated to Kitale town in January 2013 for two reasons; to do farming and try to convince the working class in big companies who had to travel to Eldoret over the Weekends for CPA classes. I decided therefore to jointly do farming and private training. It will be of interest to note that Kitale is the Kenya’s grain basket, where maize farming is done on large production scales. It was not viable for me therefore to do maize farming on a quarter piece of a land, and I decided to do vegetable farming, basically; Sukuma wiki, spinach and indigenous vegetables such as Saga and Cow peas (Ken Kunde). Running both businesses have been a challenge especially when am supposed to meet my daily expenses. My market for the vegetables is the medium sized hotels/cafes in town. Getting students in Kitale on the other hand has been easier than other towns, but again the population of CPA students is lower than that of Kisii town. I acknowledge that the major portion of my income and livelihood is from training I charge Kes. 7,500 per subject and in one semester I have average 6-7 students, making an average of 15,000 a month, where Kes 5,000 goes to farming. I get an average of Kes 12, 000 from vegetables per season of 4 months. In Kitale it rains around March to September, and then rains disappear, I have plans to have constant water supply at the firm and do cabbage production. Preferred Hybrid varieties of cabbage take four (4) months to maturity. This means I will do two seasons a year, an acre holds 24,000 heads of cabbage, on a quarter piece of land will have 5,000 heads, which when sold @ Kes 15 brings in Kes 75,000 as sales revenue. I intend to get an affordable loan which I will spend on digging a well on the my farm and some install a pump and pipes irrigate the area on dry seasons and ensure constant production throughout the year, because cabbage needs constant water supply.

Dear lenders,

Once again thank you all for the previous loan, I am now requesting for a loan of KES 17,914 to buy a laptop for CPA classes.

We are now approaching the CPA exams and I feel I need a laptop since most of my revision materials are in soft soft form. If I get a laptop I will be able to prepare my revision classes in time and move faster to cover the the course outline in time.

I will be able to repay this amount within the agreed time from the amounts I raise from both vegetable sales and CPA classes .

Thank You.