Tanzanian Jerry Isaac Mruma, a USIU MBA student and founder and CEO of Kilimo Yetu, an agribond investment startup has been found dead after he went missing last Saturday in Nairobi.
Mruma’s body was found at the City Mortuary by a family member on Thursday. He reportedly went missing after the Tanzanian Night Dinner held at the Sarova Panafric Hotel in Nairobi.
Then a representative of graduate students in USIU’s Student Affairs Council, Mruma was born and bred in Dar es Salaam Tanzania and founded Kilimo Yetu, a startup that offers stock like options as investments in the agriculture industry. Buyers of the agri-bonds invest in a crop of their preference and wait for yields when a farmer sells the produce to pay the investors between 20% to 35% yields.
The startup founded August this year identifies and packages the cost of large scale agriculture projects involving high input costs, gives investors across Kenya the opportunity to invest in these projects in return for lucrative profits within 12 months. The objective is to benefit the investor just as much as the people our projects feed.
“Our products are called ‘Agribonds’, and they are our best strategy to achieve food security in Africa. You can play a part in this, and be rewarded for it,” said the founder on his site.
To lower risk of loss of investor money, Kilimo Yetu works with farmers with a high track record of success. An investor signs up o their site, the firm contacts them and gives them access to available investments opportunities, the investors finds out more about the firm’s offering, the insurance structure and other details, they identify the their suitable AgriBond and then go ahead with the process.
The firm say they turn an investors 1 million shillings into 1.35 million in a year, produces healthy food for the population and creates employment opportunities for East African youth.
Before the founders date the firm was focusing on production of wheat, greenhouse horticulture and quail and were planning to enter the Stevia market too.
RIP Jerry.