For Elizabeth Njeri Kamau, working with Family Bank has become like growing up in a family. For the last five years, the bank has been able to lend her money to boost her business almost thrice without any hitch. After doing business for five years, she used to find herself in a fix. “During those days, I had wanted to expand, but that was not possible because banks were not ready to give credit to Small, Medium Enterprises (SME) due to the high risk nature of the business,”she says. Nevertheless, the scenario quickly changed after she opened an account at Family Finance Building Society in 2003. After saving with the bank for two years, she says she decided to ask for financial support which the bank readily agreed to in 2005.
Since then she has never looked back. Before she joined the bank, Elisabeth says life used to be miserable and openings used to be few. “I was based at Gikomba market, Nairobi where I operated a second hand business,” she says. But after getting credit from Family Bank, she decided to change the business from to new cloths – which she sources from Thailand, China, UK and Dubai. Thanks to Family Bank’s support she has been able to travel across the world. She used to have one shop and had lived in a rented house. But this has since changed. The business has enabled her to buy and develop a plot. “The banks has served me well for the last five years and am glad that whenever I ask for financial l support they always listen,” she says.
The first loan she got made her change the business from trading in second hand to opening a boutique –which specifically deals with women garments. The first loan amount was half a million shillings which she paid in a span of six months. The she borrowed Ksh 800, 000 which she equally paid with ease.
The last loan she took was Ksh1 million and is confident that she’ll pay it within a year. She says she has been able to pay her loans without default because of her husband who has been very helpful to her. Elisabeth says the support the bank given over the years has enabled her to get rooted into business without any fear of suffering any indignity as far as finances are concerned.
Like any other ordinary trader in Kenya, Florence Atieno Ahenda started her business in Gikomba just. When she ventured into the business, she neither knew any customers nor had enough money to go about her business. Although it took a while for her business to pick up, the second hand shoe business was booming by the time in Kenya. But that was before she learnt the art of doing the business.
According to her, it took her two years to get to know a few customers and also learn about the tricks involved in the business of Second hand shoes. But when that was done, the direction of her business dramatically changed. “After knowing a few customers, the issue now was how to get money which could enable me buy adequate bails to cater for my clients need,”
When she started business in the years 2005, her initial capital was Sh50, 000. During that time, she says the amount could only be enough to enable her to purchase five bails. The profit she accrued from five bale she says could only be enough to put food on her table although she had some other issues such as paying school fees for her children and helping her husband to do other core things in the house. It was at this point when Family Bank came into her rescue. Before the bank became handy, she used to see some of her colleagues going to the bank for the business loans at the bank, but she wasn’t sure whether that could be possible with her until she decided to give it a try.
“I approached the Family bank’s branch manager at Gikomba, Nairobi to see if I could be given a loan to boost my business,” Florence says. In 2009 after furnishing the banks with all the information about her business, she was advanced Ksh 200, 000 which she was to repay for six months. “When I received the money, I decided to purchase 40 bales, which could give a good return,” she says.
She says she has finished paying the first loan of Ksh 200, 000 and decided to apply for another one of Ksh 300, 000, to be paid in a year which the bank gave her and she has so far paid four months. She says she paid the first loan within a span of six months and even encourages people who are looking for loan to boost their businesses to approach Family Bank without fear as long as the business is viable.
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