Juliet Grace Edepi

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Juliet Grace Edepi by People Microcredit Investment Bureau in Kenya. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 6 - 12 months, People Microcredit Investment Bureau will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

In 1994, Grace’s husband advised her to start a small business to support the family. He told her that he couldn’t help her at all and that she would have to carry the responsibility of the family of 6 children herself. Whether or not the husband was actually unable to work, it is very common in the region for men to place the burden of supporting the family on their wives. In many cases, women are not only expected to perform domestic duties, but also to support the families through their income.

Now a widow, Grace’s efforts for her family are inspirational. Starting as a cattle trader and butcher, she has used loans through PEMCI and Kiva to include selling scrap metals and tobacco in her business. In order to sell tobacco for supplementary profit, she sometimes caries it 17 kilometers to Malakisi, where the British American Tobacco Company collection facility is located.

Grace is grateful for her loan through Kiva, as it has helped her business to grow and diversify. While she initially intended to use the loan to begin selling cereals, she decided to expand her business by selling scrap metals, as well as tobacco. Grace purchases the scrap metals in her home town, Angurai, as well as in Malaba for a price of 10 Kenya Schilings (Ksh) / 1 Kg (1 U.S. Dollar is about 65 Ksh). She then travels and sells the metals at a price of 13.50 Ksh/ Kg in Bungoma, a neighboring district, and 22 Ksh/ Kg in El Doret, a 3 hour bus ride from Malaba. With her tobacco selling enterprise, she grows her own tobacco as well as buys it from the farmers in her area at a cost of about 30 Ksh / Kg. She is able to receive a price of 55 Ksh/ Kg. for the tobacco at the British American Tobacco Company collection center.

The British American Tobacco Company sells three brands of cigarettes in Malaba. Embassy Lights cost 80 Ksh/ pack, Sportsman cost 60 Ksh/ pack, and Sweet Menthol cost 60 Ksh/pack. So, with the money that Grace makes off of 1 Kg. of tobacco, she couldn’t even buy one pack of cigarettes. Luckily for her, in many regards, she’s not a smoker. To continue the comparison, if it assumed that there is one gram of tobacco per cigarette (it’s actually less than a gram), and there are 20 cigarettes in one pack, one Kg. of Grace’s tobacco produces 50 packs of cigarettes. With one Kg. of tobacco, Grace cannot afford to buy one pack of cigarettes, yet that one Kg. produces about 50 packs of cigarettes for the British American Tobacco Company.

Of course, the British American Tobacco Company provides a forum for farmers to sell their tobacco to. The calculations are meant to show the difficulties farmers face in the region, and the miniscule portion of the profits they get from their own land. In some cases even, farmers are not able to pay back the loan British American Tobacco Company provides them for farming, and bring their tobacco to the collection center only to chip away at the debt from the previous loan.

Fortunately, with Grace’s diversity of operations, she has many sources of revenue to channel into supporting the education of her children. In Kenya, the cost of secondary school falls entirely on the individual family, so the fact that she has sent all six children successfully is a tribute to her sacrifice, resourcefulness, and hard work. One of her sons just finished secondary school and passed his final exams. Sadly, she doesn’t have the money to send him to a college for professional training.

Yet, Grace is hopeful that with a continued influx of capital through Kiva, sending her children to college will be possible. One goal that she has for the growth of her business is to be able to sell her scrap metal in Nairobi, which is a seven hour trip by bus. In Nairobi, she can sell at a price of 50 Ksh/ Kg, as compared to 22 Ksh/ Kg in El Doret. Currently, her business it too small to pay for the transportation to Nairobi, but she is confident her capacities will expand to overcome the obstacle. In talking with Grace, not only is it apparent that she is extraordinarily determined, but she is also a very smart businesswoman. Without hesitation, she knew the prices of her different commodities at the different markets of the region, and had a clear idea of how to play the markets to earn the highest profit. Despite all the challenges Grace faces, it is hard to believe that she won’t be able to meet her goals.

In the photo below, Grace stands in front of the PEMCI office.