WhatsApp and other groups were meant to share information including Muchene (gossip). It has been upgraded into a marketplace.
The hard economic times, ripples from Covid-19 and recent policies that included new taxes made it an attractive market. It favours the sophisticated who want to keep a "name.”
The formerly employed are affected most by inflation and rising cost of living. Entrepreneurs easily raise their prices if new taxes are instituted. There are no guarantees salaries will go up.
That reduces the employee purchasing power. In some countries, the salaries and wages are indexed to inflation to ensure the purchasing power is maintained.
Instead of lamenting, why not sell something, and learn from hustlers?
Why not sell something to supplement your income? In the past, you would have to go hawking, searching for space to sell your merchandise, the physical market. It was difficult and demeaning to some.
I can’t go hawking fruit and vegetables, but I can be anonymous in cyberspace and sell anything.
Now everyone is a hawker. Selling onions, fish, honey, clothes, vegetables, name anything. Even loans are hawked.
And what a better market than WhatsApp groups! You do not need to wait for Chamas or funerals to inform your market what product or service you can offer.
Add the logistics, you can deliver any product anywhere using a bodaboda (motorbike). And the use of M-Pesa payment.
When the government talks of its initiatives to lower the cost of living, it should add making it easier for us to make money. That is why lower power tariffs, better roads, and cheaper airtime will facilitate entrepreneurship.
Lots of Kenyans started side hustles to beat inflation. Remember the “car shops” during covid-19? Why did we stop it? Making more money makes up for the higher taxes. It also makes us more productive.
Let’s also be real, others turn to corruption to make ends meet when life becomes hard. We hope they are the minority and will soon change their ways.
What have you sold something lately to supplement your income? Talk to us.