The government will provide Sh300 million to Twiga Foods suppliers and customers to enable them to grow their businesses.
Speaking after opening Twiga Foods Distribution Facility at Tatu City in Ruiru, Kiambu County, President William Ruto said that the loan targets the firm’s 140,000 suppliers.
Suppliers will enjoy an annualized interest rate of 8 per cent instead of 1 per cent per day, reducing the cost of servicing credits.
“The Sh300 million that you lend to your 140,000 suppliers and customers across Kenya. We are going to make that amount of money available to you so that they can be able to borrow at lower interest rates and hopefully increase their earnings,” President Ruto said.
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“That Sh300 million CS Chelugui make sure that the customers of Twiga have access to Hustler Fund and instead of them borrowing at 1 per cent per day, they should be able to borrow at 8 per cent per year,” the Head of State added.
The agri-tech company uses technology to aggregate demand and streamline logistics in the distribution of farm produce such as bananas, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, mangoes, and cabbages, to small-scale vegetable vendors in city estates, helping make products more affordable and increasing sales for vendors.
Twiga serves about 33,000 vendors every month with an average of seven orders per week per vendor, and also operates in Uasin Gishu, Embu, Meru, Kirinyaga, Machakos, Nakuru, and Kiambu counties.
Since its founding in 2014, the company has raised billions of shillings including equity and loan deals from international investors such as the International Finance Corporation.
SOURCE: Capital business
