The project

Note: this type of loan involves risks. Factoring is still in its infancy in Africa and the track record of such products is therefore limited.

Credit risk is hedged through a combination of pledged invoices, credit guarantees and a 20% deposit, which the client builds up with Financial Access over a period of twelve months.

In 2009, a Kenyan accountant called Wachira Kariuki quit his career to start a new business with his spouse, Stella Kimemia.  They put up their family home as collateral for credit, leased an old facility and started processing milk, and later on out-rightly purchased the facility, located 50km from the capital Nairobi and modernized it.

Today, Classic Foods, has grown into a processor of a wide range of products, including pasteurized milk, yogurt, a UHT line, maize flour milling & animal feed making, mango pulping and juice making. Their products are sold in a wide range of supermarkets in the greater Nairobi area. Over the next months, a new plant in Isiolo will be coming on stream that is being realized with assistance of (amongst others) USAID.  This facility will process camel and goat milk in the largely pastoralist and semi-arid North Eastern parts of the country.  The community in this region has been losing over 50% of the milk produced before it gets to the market due to post-handling issues.

Classic Foods employs about 50 members of staff with 15 of them working in the field directly with farmers under its Enhance Business Solutions programme.  They work with dairy- , maize- and fruit  farmers throughout the country.  By strengthening the various value chains, Classic contributes to the income to thousands of farmers.