I Grew up With a Vision

By Betsy Ramser Jaime

Growing up in Kenya, Sammy Muluvi shares, ‘I grew up with a vision and great ambitions of becoming a lawyer.’ He hoped to lobby for the less advantaged people in his community and in Africa.

However, like many of us, whether by choice or through unforeseen circumstances, his plans changed.

He began with primary school and then progressed onward to secondary school working hard and doing his absolute best.

After completing secondary school he was forced to forego his university aspirations due to financial constraints at the time. He shares, ‘Instead, I decided to become an entrepreneur doing a business selling polythene bags in the Eldoret market. After two years of saving, I had enough to start my own Glossary in Eldoret, where I sell fruits and vegetables.’

He continues, ‘Currently, Eldoret town is the headquarters of Uasin Gishu County. This has attracted many people into the town who engage in various activities and at the end of the day, they pass through my kiosk to buy some fruits and vegetables. This has made it worthwhile to sell my vegetables at friendly prices which makes them go faster.’

With his profit from his Zidisha-funded loans, Sammy has been able to support his siblings with their education and hopes to do a university business course next year.

Since joining the Zidisha community in 2015, Sammy has raised ten loans through Zidisha.

With his first loan of $100, Sammy sought to build up his stock of ‘Kienyeji’ vegetables which are traditional African vegetables. These are often used to prevent and treat a variety of diseases. According to Sammy, these vegetables are a hot commodity and tend to sell like hotcakes in his town.

The next step for Sammy was to continue expanding his product offerings. Next, he moved into selling cabbages, sukuma wiki, bananas, oranges, watermelon, and apples.

Now, he is even growing his own cabbages!

Most recently, in May 2022, Sammy was able to raise $339 from the Zidisha community and shared, ‘My vegetable business is doing well, but I need more marketing strategies and delivery to my customers. Also, I wanted to expand my business and add a cereal shop, and as usual, food must be bought. For this loan, I would love to include the cereal business because I have seen the gap in the market. I will also use a little cash for branding and marketing on social media and other platforms. I believe in business if it’s well-strategized.’

Would you like to make a difference in the life of a Zidisha entrepreneur like Sammy? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to see what other business owners are doing around the world.