Thank
you to our friends at the International Bicycle Fund
for providing and maintaining this web site.Pan Africa Bicycle Information Network (PABIN)
Cycling for
Wealth
USAID in Africa, Fall 2002
Like many youths in the Siongiroi area (Bomet District, Kenya), Wilson Korir, 25, grappled with many years of failed small businesses, unemployment, and idleness. Then he noticed that milk traders were making good money and he decided to give it a try. Korir's fortunes completely reversed when he start delivering to Siongiroi Dairy Plant. After receiving training on milk handling and equipment with special hygienic containers recommended by the plant management, he borrowed a friend's bicycle for his first delivery in early 1999. Three months later Korir bought his own bicycle with the profits he had earned from milk deliveries.
Three years since his first delivery to the plant, Korir now has his own milk supplier account number and he delivers over 200 liters daily using four bicycles with the help of three assistants. Korir proudly explains that the bicycles were purchased second hand with earnings from his milk business, with annual earnings of over $10,500, Korir can afford to pay his assistants and save enough for future business ventures.
The Siongiroi Dairy Plant and related services have triggered a spirit of entrepreneurship among many such unemployed individuals, whose hope for the future now seems brighter.
Contact: Beatrice Wamalwa, bwamalwa@usaid.gov
[IBF note: the use of bicycles to bring milk so milk collection stations is very common in Uganda.]
Thank
you to our friends at the International Bicycle Fund
for providing and maintaining this web site.