Sospeter Amenya of BenCro Transition Designs is a Kenyan social entrepreneur whose work mainly involves designing websites and developing custom software to help in various aspects that are aimed at creating more opportunities for the impoverished society.
We recently got a chance to interview him regarding the importance of determination to venture into enterprise as well as his future aspirations.
Here is a snippet of the interview:
Yipe: When and why did you decide to be an entrepreneur?
Sospeter: After doing my IT course at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture, (JKUAT) I started my business soon after graduating in 2008. I had to tarmac (look for a job) for a considerable time before I made a decision to start a business. I also wanted to get start up capital for my business.
I didn’t get a job though. So the idea of joblessness hit me hard and I started thinking of other means. I decided to put my skills in practice and I joined hands with my friend and started a freelancing webdesign business working from the briefcase. It was not registered though.
In the process of searching for clients, we bumped into one corporate client, an NGO that paid us Ksh 20,000. We used the cash as our starting capital to buy a desktop. And this is how we started. The business is now registered and almost 1yr old.
So the sole reason for starting is unemployment and the urge to create opportunities in future.
Yipe: What has been your learning experience in your business venture? Sospeter: One failure makes me sharper to cut through the next and the end result is always success.
Yipe: What’s the most challenging aspect of being an entrepreneur from your perspective? Sospeter: The challenge is lack of understanding from the people you must work with, particularly some clients. Secondly is accessing finance and the long process of business registration. Make it online would encourage others to start their businesses.
Seed Capital Investment Ltd has beenestablished to offer support to young people, businesses and to entrepreneurs in Kenya. It's focus in Kenya is to offer an avenue where those who are in business or aspire to be in business can access information; advice and support that can assist them succeed.
All projects and programs are facilitated by company directors who are entrepreneurs and managing their own businesses bringing in a wealth of practical experience in business startup and management.
As part of its objectives in supporting entrepreneurs in starting up and fine tuning their businesses, Seed Capital have organized a workshop to address the issue of acquiring funds and starting small and medium enterprises in Kenya under its Youth In Business Program.
The workshop is on 5th and 6th May, 2010 at the company offices off Ngong road, behind Coptic Hospital.
After the workshop, participants will document their ideas and present them live to a panel of prominent investors for possible funding after which they will receive ongoing business guidance and mentorship until they have formed successful companies which will create employment to other youth.
For further information, please contact:
Rhoda Mwihaki, Coordinator, Youth in Business Program, Seed Capital Investment Ltd. 1 Kindaruma Lane, off Ngong Road, P.O. Box 4720, 00200 Nairobi Kenya Tel 020 807 1309, 0710 492836, 0731 535018
HALCHA Youth and Community Development organization is based in Garbatulla, a small town in northern Kenya where the populace are faced with poor living standards, low literacy levels, unemployment, unpredictable weather patterns that adversely impact on food security.
The group was started as a self-help group in 2006 and officially upgraded to a community based organisation in March 2007. The objectives at formation were:
To improve the socio-economic status of the youth and wider community
Capacity building and mentorship development.
The promotion of environmental and wildlife conservation, and
HIV/AIDS Advocacy.
The organization is not only committed to improving the living standards of the local community but also actively promotes the status of women in decision making by building confidence and raising self esteem so they can fully participate in their own affairs and make informed decisions.
Amongst it's development activities, HALCHA trains members in dressmaking and tailoring to promote self employment. The organization also emphasizes the preservation of local artisan culture.
HALCHA, which has 40 affiliate youth group members throughout the Garbatulla District has partnered with the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust Maua unit to reach more than 200 women, out of which 60 member beneficiaries have received loans. Another project in partnership with Kenya's Ministry of Youth Affairs has benefited more than 2,000 youth with capacity building and mentorship development, enabling 34 youth groups in the district to receive funding.
These milestones have been achieved in spite of the challenges the organization faces. These include financial constraints as well as the lack of working tools such as sewing machines for the tailoring project. Transport and logistic problems also affect the organization based in a remote rural area.
However HALCHA has the manpower and willingness to promote development and continues undaunted in it’s bid to help in the alleviate of poverty amongst the youth and wider population of Garbatulla District.
Last Friday, once again Kenyans were shocked as they watched the death toll rise of consumers of the illicit brew – changaa in Shauri Moyo Estate in Nairobi’s sprawling Eastlands area; which as of today has reached 9 according to the Daily Nation.
Changaa is a local brew that resembles vodka, Tanzania’s Konyagi and Uganda’s Waragi. However unlike it’s East African sisters, changaa has not as yet been legalised.
This is not the first such case in Kenya. In June 2005, 49 people died in Machakos (EasternProvince) after they consumed an illicit drink suspected to have been laced with a poisonous chemical, and it seems that such cases are not going to end easily.
A regular changaa drinker was quoted in the media after learning that five of his friends had succumbed to the Shauri Moyo brew as saying it was "bahati mbaya", bad luck. However he added: "I will go back to drinking busaa, although it is more expensive, (than chang'aa)".
Indeed as John Mututho the Member of Parliament behind the recently passed Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill asserts, that the deaths and blindness were caused by extra chemicals added to the brew and “sold to unsuspecting poor Kenyans in the name of chang'aa".
Some commonly used additives include methanol and ethanol. Methanol has a high human toxicity. If ingested, as little as 10 milligrams can cause permanent blindness destroying the optic nerve while 30 ml is potentially fatal. Based on its abilities to change human consciousness, ethanol is considered a psychoactive drug. Death from ethyl alcohol consumption is possible when one’s blood alcohol level reaches 0.4% and a blood level of 0.5% or more is commonly fatal.
If the historic Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill which repeals the Chang’aa Prohibition and Liquor Licensing Acts receives presidential assent, this will mean that brewers of such liquor will have to face stringent quality standards and inspections. However with the current enforcement agencies so far being unable to cope in preventing future loss of life and blindness, it seems that more has to be done to ensure that the vendors adding dangerous substances to these brews are stopped.
Unfortunately the business opportunities in this sector remain attractive for those seeking to make a quick buck. Changaa is popular because it is cheap. A mug costs Sh10 (approximately 20 US cents). It also has the added attraction of being readily available, though not on supermarket shelves nor established bars.
And it is not just slum dwellers who have taken to changaa. Crippling taxes have forced formal sector brewers to hike their prices and the informal sector brewers have benefited from more customers due to their low priced product. However, unlike Kenya Breweries or Keroche industries who have to go through rigorous quality standardisation and expensive marketing to manufacture their products and attract customers, changaa brewing is a home based cottage industry where not even a hygiene inspection happens. Word of mouth is generally the marketing tool, and if the price remains low – customer loyalty is assured.
For the Bill (if enacted) to make any significant inroads in preventing the deaths that occurred in Shauri Moyo from happening again, emphasis must be placed on ensuring proper regulatory structures are put in place. The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse Authority (NACADA) has so far been instrumental in making the public aware of the hazards of excessive alcohol consumption. However, the main thrust of their campaign has been the “don’t drink and drive” approach. This means nothing to the changaa drinkers whose main mode of transport is their legs.
Though the objectives of the Bill are noble, there has to be a holistic approach that also educates the changaa brewers and consumers on the dangers of additives. However, as these vendors generally tend to operate from their homes, the Bill does not give cognisance to their informal business culture. To say that brewers will have to be licensed will only mean that many will continue to operate illegally. For those that do get the licence from the proposed District Committee’s, the prescribed licence fee will be passed onto the consumers meaning loss of market.
Even the application for licence procedures will be an issue for brewers who will have to provide “a comprehensive proposal on the nature, orientation and other justification for the establishment of the alcoholic plant” amongst other requirements.
It remains to be seen whether the Bill will make a difference in the lives of the changaa consumers and brewers. Ensuring that the barriers to entry remain attractive but also strictly enforcing quality standards by providing the relevant agencies with appropriate resources will most definitely prevent future loss of life.
SAGE Kenya is a country chapter of the Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship, a global community of teenage entrepreneurs sharing a common purpose. Started in 2009, Sage Kenya’s mission is to help create the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose innovations and social enterprises address the world’s major unmet needs.
Much of Sage Kenya’s work is currently within Western Kenya preparing students for success in college and in the competitive global community by linking them to role models from Maseno and Great Lakes Universities.
SAGE Kenya has also worked with high schools within Kisumu East and West District to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship among students by assisting them to set up model entrepreneurial projects.
The organization also has a mentorship programme working with university and polytechnics to assign one to two student mentors to each high school to assist participating schools to prepare for district competitions. This opportunity provides the students with a platform to develop their problem solving, opportunity-seeking and informed risk-taking entrepreneurial acumen that will be of use in starting their own commercial or social ventures in the future.
Current projections are that SAGE Kenya will be instrumental in creating between 100 to 400 more new entrepreneurial ventures annually.
During a recent competition, students from various schools presented ventures that included:
Agriculture: a solar anti-ripening machine made from local materials such as polythene bags.
Health: a student design team presented a demonstration kit that educates the youth on the effect of nicotine to the lungs. This model is now being used by the Drug Abuse Campaign in Kenya.
Technology: a solar water purifier has been developed .
Food security: a Hydroponic Cultivation system has been developed using designed Shade nets that use old mosquito nets and local tree poles that reduce the cost of pest control among farmers.
E-Government: some student have developed a central database system that can be adopted by the Government to have all the government operations in and a central system.
Eco-Energy: using Jatropha as alternative source of energy, some students have developed a model plantation for a jatropha seed nursery.
Recycling: some students have started to sell curio product made from water hyacinth which is a nuisance from the Lake Victoria.
The timing for a programmes like SAGE Kenya cannot be better, and the organization is lobbying the government to make the education system more relevant and rigorous whilst at the same time promoting an entrepreneurial culture amongst students.
Indeed SAGE Kenya’s approach is a “pattern-changing idea to practical innovation”. The emphasis on the practical, scalable and cost-effective shows that it is a progressive organization that teaches students to create sustainable profits and more jobs for their peers.
