Deputy President William Ruto’s empowerment programme that seeks to uplift small-scale enterprises has already benefited over 2,800 traders in Busia, county UDA coordinator Susan Mangeni has said.
Mangeni said the programme is currently listing more prospective beneficiaries as the DP begins to implement his bottom-up economic model.
Ruto is expected to tour Busia on Saturday where he will meet with small scale traders as he popularises his 2022 presidential bid.
“We already have people who have been empowered as individual traders and these are more than 400 in every subcounty but we also have various groups which are likely to be considered. The number of people to be considered for this programme is still open,” Mangeni told the Star.
Busia has seven subcounties.
“What I can assure you as the most important thing is that we will be in Busia to demonstrate our bottom-up economic model which we are now beginning to implement. We are telling them (traders) that it is possible to build a capital base for small-scale businesspeople.”
Ruto is expected to tour Butula, Nambale and Teso North constituencies.
The county UDA team led by the party’s national vice-treasurer Mary Emase and Mangeni has held a series of meetings aimed at organising how the traders will receive Ruto.
Ruto who has set his eyes on the presidency was in Busia on March 12 when he presided over a fundraiser for boda boda associations in Budalang’i, Funyula, Matayos and Teso South.
He promised to return to the county to empower more small-scale traders in Teso North, Butula and Nambale.
“We are going to increase the stock of traders and connect them to markets. By doing that, we will increase revenue for this country. We want to build our economy by just organising the small scale business people through financing and through access to markets,” Mangeni said.
She added, “We are already implementing our bottom-up approach and demonstrating how it is going to work. We want to organise these small-scale traders to have a large network through a financial framework that can increase their capital base.”
She said the empowerment programme is in its pilot stage. The aim is to showcase to traders, who are in organised in groups, that pulling resources together is the best way to build their businesses.
“We want to empower that trader who has been doing business that generates Sh500 with Sh2,000 or Sh3,000 or more to increase their capital base so that they are able to do their business and increase their revenues,” she said.
She said the small traders have suffered for long with loans that charge exorbitant interest rates.
Mangeni said the bottom-up model is an alternative way traders can have access to money at lower interest rates as long as they have organised themselves into Saccos.
Traders in Saccos will be able to borrow the money availed at lower interest rates.
The programme, Mangeni said, will also involve sensitisation of traders in meetings on how to manage their respective businesses.
“We are giving them the idea of forming Saccos. We are going to organise them in Saccos because they already have a common interest which is business,” she said.
The Saccos will be formed to bring onboard traders in each of the seven subcounties in Busia.
“From the money the traders will receive the businesspeople themselves will decide one joint business idea they can pursue as a team or borrow amongst themselves for the purpose of boosting their individual businesses.”
