By Betsy Ramser Jaime
John Muriu Njuguna was raised in Nakuru county, Kenya. As a child, he was educated through the secondary school level, and today he is married and has three children of his own. To earn a living, he operates a boda boda business. John shares the interesting history behind the words, ‘boda boda’ as he says, ‘Boda boda is a corrupted word for border and was a very lucrative business at the Uganda-Kenya border in the past. It involved bicycle transport. With time, the trend has steadily spread to other areas of the country and has evolved to include motorcycle transport. Mine is a motorcycle and it is my livelihood. It has been sustaining me for five years now and I love it with all my heart.’
John is a long-time Zidisha member, obtaining his very first loan, back in April 2013 for $100. Although he was already operating his boda boda business at the time, he also wanted to get into farming to help supplement his income from the boda boda business. With the $100 loan, he was able to plough one acre of maize and beans. He also hoped that the profits from this secondary business would enable him to expand the boda boda business, with the purchase of a new motorcycle in the future.
The following year, in January 2014, John shared that his family was doing well and that his first Zidisha funded loan had truly impacted his family in a positive way. Since his last loan, he had purchased a new motorcycle and was raising his second loan of $263 to put towards planting maize, beans, and peas.
As John continued to grow both of his businesses, he became more attuned to the needs of his community, noticing that there was a shortage of milk. To help solve this issue, he was able to use a $432 loan from Zidisha lenders, in October 2014, to purchase a dairy cow. In addition, his family would also benefit from this, as they would have a readily available source of milk as well.
By September 2015, John had been experimenting with cattle rearing for one year and found it to be a good business for him. He determined that the next step would be to purchase one more cow, and with a $692 loan from lenders, he was able to make this happen.
A year later, towards the end of 2016, John shared his next request with lenders, ‘Lenders once again thank you for your continuing support. I saw a need to purchase one acre of land at the cost of 250000. I have managed to save 150000 from my harvest and some savings from my daily cows. I have been having some problem to feed my cows because of the extended drought, a lot of my income was buying hay for my daily cows. I have decided to buy one acre land, plant grass and lucerne that will support me annually. This will reduce the expenses of buying grass. I will focus more on my income to achieve my target come next year. Am targeting six good cows that will be able to supply milk the whole year.’
John continued to work hard and managed to make steady progress in his business ventures. In 2018, he successfully raised two Zidisha funded loans for $134 and $1,160, and used the funds to purchase additional stock for his shop, which was managed by his wife. His stock included items such as, ‘boots, saddles, thermoses, jikos, mattresses and utensils.
Recently, as of February 2019, John has been busy preparing the land for planting season. With his most recent loan from lenders for $1,160, he was able to buy seeds and fertilizer. With three acres of his own, and three additional that he hoped to lease, his Zidisha lenders were a big help in allowing him to continue to grow his farming business.
Since starting with Zidisha, John has done a great job of pivoting his businesses to both support his family and also to meet the needs of his community. On Feb 8, 2019 he shared, ‘Hello lenders am grateful for your finding my businesses are doing fine my motorcycle is running well, my Mali Mali shop is doing good and my cows are very good am selling milk well. The demand is high but very soon we will meet these demands. Am educating my three children in a good school and am paying comfortably without straining. I am happy for you lenders thank you indeed, am planning to grow my shop into a big store selling household equipment and continuing farming. Am certainly sure that I will achieve more.’
Would you like to be a change maker in the life of an entrepreneur like John? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to read about dozens of other inspiring members of the Zidisha community.
