You’ve got used clothes? Backyard vendor is here

It's an open secret that a majority of Kenyan youths are highly educated and skilled but unemployed or underemployed.

However, some of these youths are not giving up just yet.

Take James Serengia and his crew of three, for instance, who are finding innovative ways of earning income, hence creating solutions and shaping the future.

The University of Nairobi economics graduate and self-taught software developer has created an online market that sells used household items such as clothes and shoes.

Serengia’s decluttering platform is aptly called the backyard vendor.

He says the idea of starting the platform came in April 2022 when he was in his house broke and hungry, with household items he no longer used yet in good shape.

Serengia thought maybe with an easy to access and safe digital platform, he could find a potential buyer in return for quick cash.

“Other digital platforms for used household items are available but they are quite expensive. There are also safety concerns. I also thought about a platform that is fully Kenyan,” he told the Star.

It is at this point that the coding enthusiast got the idea of starting his own platform.

After numerous trials and with more than 1,000 listed items for potential buyers, the website is now up and running.

Serengia says he later teamed up with his friends, John Ochieng’, Dortea Kangai and Rollins Lagat, to market the idea.

“These friends have refined my perspective on the platform and broadened it beyond the backyard idea,” he adds.

Ochieng’ says he helped with getting regulatory approvals, leading to the integration of the platform with telcos to enable payments for those seeking to use it.

“I found backyard vendor to be a novel idea because the existing online market platforms are expensive and unsafe. This is a Kenyan idea that has the potential to turn into something big in the not-so-distant future,” he says.

“That is how the idea of Safaricom’s mobile money started. It took an idea to turn it into the sensation that it is today.

“We have so far ... convinced over 1,000 people to list up for free [version of the platform] because we are still starting. Any shop with over 1,000 items is almost becoming a supermarket, and that tells you that the idea is a serious.”

On her part, Kangai says they are keen to retain the identity of the idea to help people and families seeking to declutter their houses, even as it serves people in commercial spaces to sell their products.

“The other thing that I am very optimistic about is that the platform will create employment for many youths,” she adds.