Samwel Maiyo, Farmer
Samwel is a parent and a beneficiary of the sQuid Microfinance initiative in Chepkoilel Central community, Emtit self-help group. He is a small-scale farmer who lives in a 4-acre piece of land where he practices mixed farming: Dairy cows, crop farming (Maize, Coffee and Avocados); Horticulture and poultry keeping. He got to know about the microfinance initiative during a parents meeting at school and he joined a group of ten members and after contributing PEF for 2 months he qualified for a loan. “I was personally attracted to the fact that the project focuses on creating economic empowerment with an intention to assist parents overcome economic barriers to education so that they can better support their children in school and eventually improve their children’s education. I couldn’t hesitate but convince the rest of the parents to join” says Samwel.
In the month of November 2019, Samwel applied for a loan of Ksh40,000 and was approved. The loan was used as follows:
Buy farm inputs - Ksh 20,000
Buy diary feeds - Ksh 10,000
Buy poultry feeds - Ksh 10,000
His business has really improved ever since the loan was received despite the Covid-19 pandemic which affected most market centres, leading to no markets being open to sell the produce from the farm. However, since the government directives to re-open the markets, sales have gone up - thus increasing incomes. “The production in my farm has improved, now I’m selling 10 litres of milk per day at Sh60 per litre from my previous 5 litre of milk. I also have 30 chickens of which I sell the eggs at Ksh 450 per tray, 1kg of avocado at Ksh100 and 1kg of coffee at Ksh500. My farming has also improved because I received sufficient capital through the loan, which allowed me to run my business in a better way.’’
He is confident that he is in a position to provide for his family and his son who is a beneficiary of the project, and from the PEF contributions he makes weekly he is certain of the success of his sons’ education and other children in tertiary in schools.
Samwel concluded: “This November I expect to have a bumper harvest from my maize plantation, avocado and coffee plantation of which I will use the returns to clear my loan balance and apply for a bigger loan and buy a 10,000 litre water tank in January following the low rain season. I foresee that I will advance even further and achieve greater things with a higher loan amount”