From Sh30 a day to Sh5m in assets: The Nyandarua women transforming boda boda households

By  Kamau Maichuhie

Gender Reporter

Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

• They came from households that relied heavily on earnings from the increasingly competitive boda boda sector. As incomes shrank and the cost of living rose, paying rent and meeting basic needs became difficult.

• Instead of waiting for circumstances to change, the women decided to act.

In 2019, a group of women in Maili-Kumi market in Ndaragwa Constituency, Nyandarua County, began discussing how to secure a better future for their families.

They came from households that relied heavily on earnings from the increasingly competitive boda boda sector. As incomes shrank and the cost of living rose, paying rent and meeting basic needs became difficult.

Instead of waiting for circumstances to change, the women decided to act.

Each member committed to saving Sh30 a day.

What started as a savings initiative bringing together 50 members has since grown into Gatheru Visioners Sacco, a women-founded investment group.

The members have established businesses, acquired land and built collective assets worth more than Sh5 million.

“We are happy and proud of the step we took back in 2019…the future of our members and individual families looks brighter," says founding member Gladys Kimunya.

At the time, she says, the women had no independent source of income. Even raising the initial Sh30 daily contribution required careful consideration, she says.

Determined to improve their circumstances, they consulted one another and later invited their husbands to a meeting to discuss how the initiative could work.

The discussions resulted in three possible arrangements. First, the husbands could support their wives' contributions. Second, men could join the group independently. Third, both spouses could register as individual members and contribute separately.

Gladys notes that they opted to register as a sacco rather than a self help group because membership had already surpassed the 30 member limit set under self help group registration rules. 

“Members invested their money through table banking, a system that enabled them to borrow from pooled savings to start and expand small businesses,” she said. 

The journey was tested almost immediately.

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted members' livelihoods. Some could no longer repay the soft loans they had borrowed through table banking, and membership fell from 50 to 20 active members.

"The defaulters were our friends; we understood why they were unable to repay. We eventually decided to forget about the loans, and we continued our activities with the 20 active members," Gladys recalls.

Rather than abandon the initiative, the remaining members chose to rebuild.  

In 2021, members increased their daily contributions from Sh30 to Sh50 per person. Couples who registered individually therefore contributed Sh100 a day between them.

And members like Gladys took loans to grow their businesses. She invested in poultry farming, starting with 30 indigenous kienyeji chickens. Her flock grew to 150 birds, a number she maintains throughout the year. She later diversified into pig and dairy farming.

She says she has also established herself as a supplier of fertilised kienyeji eggs for hatching.

Her journey mirrors that of many members who used the group's savings and lending model to launch or expand businesses of their own.

One of them, Rachael Wanjiku, used seed capital from the group's table-banking activities to establish an agrovet in Maili-Kumi market. Today, she supplies Gladys with animal feeds and supplements.

Rachael says the group has helped her build a business, educate her children and contribute to acquiring family land, where they constructed a house.

“I am happy that the idea worked. But I must admit it has not been a walk in the park. It has taken a lot of trust, commitment and discipline,” she says.

“With time, our success story encouraged more members, including some as old as our parents, to join” she says.

“I comfortably educated my children; we managed to buy family land where we constructed a house. We are no longer in tents.”

As members' businesses grew, so did the sacco's ambitions.

Lawrence Kimunya, Gladys's husband and a sacco official, says he is proud of the women who initiated the idea and the bodaboda riders who embraced it.

“I am proud of my wife and other women who came up with this idea. I am also proud of my bodaboda colleagues who embraced it. It is an idea that has opened many doors and opportunities for us,” he says.

Lawrence operates a hardware shop in Maili-Kumi, while Gladys manages their livestock enterprise, which she established through support from the group's table-banking scheme.

In 2021, the sacco tapped into the Uwezo Fund to boost its table banking kitty. Gladys says they have received the funds three times, with the initial loan of Sh70,000 rising to Sh140,000 and then Sh280,000. The members have now applied for a fourth loan worth Sh560,000. 

Enock Wagithomo, sacco’s chairperson, says access to more affordable credit has helped members sustain their investments.

“For every Sh1,000 loaned to a member, we only charge Sh50 as interest; we have no other hidden charges,” he says.

They have acquired two and a half acres, subdivided into smaller plots, with each of the 20 active members receiving a plot and a title deed.