Loan to buy solar -cooler box for fruits & green vegetables

Pamela

Nyamanga Village, Kenya

100% repaid

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How it Works

Entrepreneur

Name

Pamela

Member since

May 2015

On-time repayments

144 installments • 21%

About Me

I am Pamela Aoko, a widowed lady and mother of eight children. I am a grandmother of three beautiful granddaughters. I grew up in a polygamous family, my father had four wives and my mother was the 3rd wife. My parents were peasant farmers with very limited income. I and my siblings (girls) did not get chance to pursue education past primary education and most of them dropped out in grade 5 and below.

I had a very hard life in my childhood as my father discriminated girls from going to school and he only educated his sons. I got married at the age of 17 as a 1st wife since I did not want to get married in a polygamous set-up. My husband died 4 years ago and left me with eight children to take care. This hardship since my husband was not employed and was a peasant farmer too, I decided to start a small business to support my family and that is how I started a grocery kiosk in Nyamanga Village of Mbita Sub County.

I am involved in peer support group for widows in my community as a chairperson, I do counsel with them and advise them to start small income generating activities that could help them avoid irresponsible behaviors leading to sex and contraction of HIV/AIDS among other sexually transmitted disease that has threatened survival of future generations of Africa. living with my brother's children ,they are orphans and were left in my hands.

My Business

I am in the business of fresh fruits and green vegetables buying and selling. My products are; bananas, oranges, paw paw, green maize, beans and watermellon but my main product that I buy and sell in bulk is green grams followed by beans. During harvesting season always I stock green maize of upto US$ 400 and beans US$200. I stock these products during harvesting season because during this period farmers do sell them at throw away price then treat to preserve and store for two to three months and sell when the price had increased by 70% giving a profit of almost 60%.

My business is profitable though we cannot expand due to lack of capital that serves to thwart my efforts in timing and scaling up. The prices of grains are always down during harvesting . If I get Zidisha loan, I look forward to repaying in time so that I can qualify for more bigger loans from ZIDISHA to enable me expand and grow my business.

Loan Proposal

I am seeking a loan of KES 19,024 to add my savings of KES 6,500 in order to buy a solar - powered food cooler box in order to preserve fresh fruits, paw paw, oranges, mangoes for long-term selling. I'll be purchasing the green vegetables, tomatoes from Kisii and store for long-term selling. With a good storage and food preservation method, I will be able to sale at a very good prices and make a very good return for my business. I will double my current daily income from KES 500 to KES 900 due to increased sale as a result of food storage. I want to thank my ZIDISHA lenders for trust in my business.