For two years, Rose Wamucii Nderitu worked as a credit officer at a Nairobi-based micro-finance firm. To many people, her job in the financial sector looked enviable. “I was based in Nairobi, and my job majorly entailed field work.” She would meet women in chama groups within Nairobi whom she would serve with short term and long term credit facilities. “I would also carry out due and late loan recoveries,” she adds. However, Wamucii was not content at her job. To begin with, she felt that her Sh. 20,000 monthly salary was insufficient. “Although working as a credit officer gave me the comfort of a regular monthly salary, the pay I took home did not match my needs. It was too small,” says Wamucii, who is in her mid-thirties.
Towards the end of 2013, she wrote down her resignation letter. “I had reached the end of my tether and all I wanted was to walk out and start my own venture.” Interestingly, she has decided that her next move would be in agri-business. “It sounded ridiculous quitting a banking job to become a farmer, but I was determined to make agriculture my source of wealth.”
However, doubts started creeping in her in the weeks after she quit employment. “I knew quitting was the right move, but there were days when I feared that it would backfire on me.” Additionally, unlike her job at the micro-finance institution, she had no experience in running a farm professionally. “Apart from the Sh. 30,000 I had saved, I didn’t have enough capital. Yet, the two acres I wanted to invest in were in Ngobit, a dry area in Nyeri County,” she adds. Her only head-start was that the farm was owned by her family, which spared her land leasing fees.
Determined to put on her gumboots and start farming, she got Sh. 50,000 from her husband Alex Gitonga, Sh. 20,000 from her dad, and Sh. 50,000 from her uncle. Armed with a start-up war chest of Sh. 150,000, Wamucii hit the ground running and started her farm known as Tanolope Farm. “I decided to start with maize. I hired tractors and casual labourers, prepared the land, planted, and went back home hoping for maximum germination of the seeds.” However, instead of a land blossoming with rows of young shoots, Wamucii’s two acres were characterized by small patches of germination. “I received a baptism of fire. Only 20 per cent of the seeds germinated.” Apparently, she had unknowingly planted uncertified maize seeds that failed to germinate. “I was shocked, disappointed and left reeling with losses from the cost of labour, fertilizer, and the seeds.”
To redeem her venture, Wamucii engaged an agri-business consultant. “Hiring an expert was my turning point. I was able to figure out my weak areas and know how to maximize on seed germination as well as higher production,” she says. The icing on the cake was introducing drip irrigation on her farm. “With drip irrigation, I was able to start planting a wider variety of crops including maize and bananas.” Three years on, her farming business has broken even. Today, Wamucii is able to rake in a personal pay of Sh. 80,000 per month from her agri-business projects after deducting her total operational costs. She has also employed five people who look after the farm.
Evidently, though, running a farm business is not a walk in the park. “There are numerous challenges such as high cost of farm inputs and low prices in seasons when the market is flooded with produce,” says the mother of one.
According to her, running her farm has been a learning journey. “For instance, if I were to turn back the clock and contemplate on quitting employment for agribusiness, I’d do it sooner. I’d also seek business advisory services like project management or have an agri-business expert guide me from onset.” However, she has no regrets. Over the past three years, Wamucii has been able to establish agri-business networks that have facilitated ease access to the market. “I have also streamlined operations at the farm and now I’m currently panel beating my business plan for my upcoming dairy farming segment in my farm,” she says, adding that farming is a big business with huge profit margins when done professionally and with value addition. To increase her income, Wamucii is planning to start processing and packaging her bananas for sale in local supermarkets. Over the next one year, she plans to inter-marry her dairy project with her husband’s dairy consultancy business. “Since he runs a dairy consultancy business, it will be easier to for me to get it right seeing that an expert’s input will be readily at hand,” she says with a smile.
Her key lessons:
- All that glitters is not gold; this is not just a cliché! That shining corporate job may not always be the most efficient money-maker. In my field, you need more gumboots than heels!
- Do not constrain yourself to a job corner that doesn’t satisfy you. Get out of the nest and you will discover that the world is larger than you thought and full of more lucrative opportunities.
- When you start a new business, you will most likely make losses. However, always remember that there is no shame in getting someone to walk with you in your new business.