NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 19 – Seven years ago Maureen Odera opened a bakery at Kibuye open air market in the lakeside city of Kisumu to mint money.
She named it Modesh Bakers, an abbreviation of her surname and official name that blended with that of her husband.
Her daily returns were good and she employed a lean staff of two.
But her fortunes would five years later change due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Her business closed down.
The purchasing power of people went down due to the effects of poverty and high cost of living and the ravaging effects of Covid.
Worse was the compounding fact that Kibuye market, too, had to be closed down, yet this is where most of her clients were.
“Kibuye was flattened and traders relocated elsewhere due to Covid effects. I knew that was the end of my business,” she says.
The mother of three started the business with a paltry Sh15, 000 as the seed money. She was baking cakes.
The market was closed for expansion and also due to the effects of Covid 19 because of the effects of the contagious disease.
She had no options but to close the business for a while.
“I struggled to set up again after our structures were demolished at Kibuye,” she recounted
Then lady luck came calling many months later.
A German development agency, GIZ, took her to Kisumu Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) to train in cake baking.
She joined hundreds of traders with similar challenges and took part in a program, aimed at accelerating business recovery and growth of small enterprises post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Odera is now up again after trying to make ends meet.
Armed with a diploma from Eldoret polytechnic in food and beverage courses, she again perfected her baking skills at KIRDI.
“I immediately secured a space within Manyatta slums, targeting the youth, mostly girls who have dropped out of school,” she says.
Her intention was to show them the way, to learn from her on how to bake cakes and start a small business to dissuade them from deviance into criminal acts such as drug addiction.
“My goal is now to help other women to be like me, so that they can start their own businesses and become successful,” she said.
She gives gratitude to Stanbic bank, which in collaboration with Kisumu County Government and other partners, for the empowerment support accorded her and a number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) like her.
Odera noted that she gained skills from the empowerment program under business SMEs, which taught customers, suppliers, book keeping and accounting.
Her business worth now stands at Sh3 million, but her vision is to set up a bakery factory.
She currently decorates different cake sizes besides production of other wheat products.
“Now, I employ around 7 people in my small bakery, in the next 10 years I want to own a factory, it is a dream, I pray,” she said.
Besides establishing her own small bakery, Odera hopes to one day open up a baking school where she intends to nurture and develop talents among the youth.
She has three rooms in her new space within Manyatta slums, the front door displaying the finished products, the other room used as a factory, while the third is offering packaging space.
Four kilometers away is Raymond Odhiambo, who runs Wolf Arts Kisumu, a social enterprise that is passionate about regenerating and conserving the environment around Lake Victoria.
Just like Odera, Odhiambo too was part of the empowerment programme that has now propelled his innovative initiative.
He is actively involved in collecting various waste products, including plastics, old clothes, motor vehicle and bicycle tires, water hyacinth and reeds, which they use to make furniture.
Odhiambo noted that with a workforce of eleven people, they have engaged women and young people within the slums in Kisumu to collect the raw material, with an aim to build their capacity and skills on waste management.
“I am a graduate of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEMs), sponsored by Stanbic Bank and other partners, I am proud that it has elevated my business,” he says.
“We choose to recycle these products to save our lake from choking with pollution.
Climate Change is now a global conversation, he asserts that they must be part of the solution.
At his showroom located at Rotary Centre in Kisumu, Odhiambo is proud of his finished products, which has now attracted a market in the international world.
The products the team is working on include, seats made of used tires, flower bases, different types of ornaments amongst others.
“Recently we got an order from the USA, we have delivered some items there. Hopefully more opportunities will come our way,” he said.
The post COVID-19 pandemic program has pulled many small medium business enterprises from the miasma.
The MSMEs were trained in business resilience, digital sales and marketing, financial management, people management, access to markets and new value chains, amongst others.
Odhiambo noted that he is fully applying the knowledge gained through the mentorship program in his business and results are trickling.
The duo now have access to new markets after the graduation and have the capacity to innovate new products to meet the market demands.
