Along the busy Kamiti road, just at Zimmerman’s base bus stop, you will meet a fruit vendor Brian Muthomi, a young fruit vendor who is always busy serving customers who frequent his stall to get a bite of their favorite fruits.
Whether you are looking for pawpaw, pear, dragon fruit, grapes, mango, or apple, you will find them all fresh at Muthomi’s stall christened BM Fresh Produce.
The businessman has a team of four ladies who help him to serve his customers including offering delivery services to customers in various locations.
In a brief interview, Muthomi revealed he has 5 such stalls in various parts of the city, including Roysambu, Kasarani, Marurui, and Ngara.
“I have hired people to manage four of them while one is run by my young brother. I also have a Barber Shop in Roysambu and that’s where you’ll find me most of the weekends,’’ he says.
Asked about how he managed to set up all those businesses at Just 26 years old, Muthomi said he started off with a loan from Timiza and has since been borrowing to expand his businesses.
“I was introduced to Timiza by a friend of mine. They have good terms. I took my first loan three years ago. That is when I started my first business.
The loan attracted one of the lowest interests I had ever seen. After paying the loan, I immediately took another one and kept on borrowing to expand my businesses,” he said.
He added that good customer service has also helped him to retain customers as well as earn referrals.
On how much he makes per day, Muthomi said, “As an SME, my businesses give me money daily. I cannot complain because I make more than some of my friends in white-collar jobs”.
He advised anyone intending to venture into entrepreneurship to make good use of loans, especially short-term loans with low interest rates like Timiza, to grow their businesses.
Timiza, an instant loan facility by Absa Bank Kenya, offers fast and easy loans to all mobile phone users, including the marginalized, remotely located, and unbanked population.
The facility allows both Absa and non-Absa customers to access higher loan limits and enjoy the most affordable facility fee of 5% compared to the market price and interest fee of 2.96% per month.
Timiza is operated entirely from mobile phones by dialing *848# or through the Timiza mobile app, which can be downloaded from the Google Play store or IOS app store.
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Customers can access upto Sh150,000 repayable in 30 days. The more one transacts the more they grow and improve their Timiza credit limit. In addition, one gets discounts and loan limit growth on early repayment.
To open a Timiza account, you need to first register on Timiza for a transactional account. For your first-time loan application, follow the following steps.
- Launch the app on your phone.
- Enter your PIN to log in.
- Your loan limit will be shown on the home screen
- Click My loans.
- Select Request loan.
- Enter the amount of money you want to borrow.
- Click continue.
- Timiza will confirm whether or not the loan application was successful
- Wait for a message confirming you have qualified for the loan.
Application for a Timiza loan using USSD service
- Dial *848# on your mobile phone. Make sure you have registered for a Timiza account.
- Enter your Timiza PIN.
- Select option 4: Loan
- Select option 1: request loan.
- Select option 1: Get Cash.
- Enter the amount of money you want to borrow
- Confirm the amount you have applied for
- Timiza will send a confirmation SMS.
To repay your loan, use Pay Bill number 300067 and enter your mobile number as the account number. Here is the procedure.
- On your MPESA menu, Select Lipa na M-PESA.
- Select Paybill.
- Enter 300067 as the Business number.
- The account number is the Timiza registered phone number
- Enter the amount you want to repay.
- Enter your M-PESA PIN
Alternatively, you can dial *848# . Enter your Timiza pin, select loan option, and select pay loan.