Kenyans could be sitting on a gold mine worth 158 billion shillings in their homes in form of unused goods in their homes, according to an inventory survey released by Nielsen Kenya in April, 2014
The survey, which was carried out across the country with the exception of North Eastern and Western, saw Nairobi region take the lead in unused goods worth 69 billion shillings followed closely by Eastern and Central with 26 and 22 billion shilling respectively.
The value of the unused art collections per capita (per person) is the highest at Ksh. 144,073 followed by furniture at Ksh. 27,765 and Computers/Laptops Ksh. 25,057
Based on last year’s economic output (GDP) which was US$ 37. 32B, the contribution or the value of the un-used goods that people are willing to sell is valued at 4.94% of the GDP. 
Priscilla Muhiu, Head of Marketing OLX in Kenya, says that when people have a financial need, they would rather ask for a loan from a friend or even a bank. Selling the items they don’t need or don’t use anymore is not top of mind. People need to realize that the items the keep in their homes could be valuable as a source of cash. Liquidating these personal long-term assets (converting them into cash) could improve their purchasing power while also optimizing these items ‘ value before they are fully depreciated or disposed as waste.
“If one was to sell every unused good in a full house, they could make enough money to meet their financial needs. In fact, you might even have money to start a business or explore other economic ventures,” she says.
“We recently conducted a survey to understand the barriers to selling and we found that more than 40% of the respondents didn’t sell because they think that they have nothing to sell.” Peter Ndiang’ui, the Country Manager OLX adds This clearly illustrates that Kenyans don’t think that the things they perceive to be worthless, could be useful to someone else.
The AC Nielsen research shows that if we had a good turn-over of a fraction of the used items that people are keeping in their homes, 4 things will happen ;
- More money will flow back into our economy , spurring demand for goods and services
- People who are selling will be able to lower their cost of living by being able to offset the cost of upgrading into a new item with the revenue they will earn by selling the older item
- Overall, other people looking for acquiring goods at lower price points, for example a student who has just gotten her/his first job will be able to afford high quality items at lower prices if they buy them used .
- Where people don’t have to borrow money at a high-interest, they will make their lives even more cheaper
“When I drive around, I see a lot of Balconies full of stuff that could be turned into money.Kenyans need to realize that they are sitting on a gold mine,” Peter adds
OLX provides a free platform for consumers to sell the items that they don’t use/need anymore and make some money to meet their financial needs. It’s really easy and fast to use,” Priscilla adds