Majority of Mums Work Outside Home
In the 1950s, men are the ones who went to work while women were housewives.
But as years passed by, women got more empowered. They got formal education, employed, and became managers in big offices like men.
This, however, limited them from taking care of their kids. They found themselves spending 8+ hours on their jobs.
And when both mum and dad are busy at work, there is no ample time to take care of their kids. Due to this busyness, there is no doubt they need a dire solution. Most of them result in the house helps.
But those who don’t like all the hustles of the house help prefer daycares, where their young ones can stay peacefully during the day until they return in the evening.
Getting A Reliable Domestic Manager Is Hard
…especially for the employed parents.
Besides, in 2011, Kenya passed domestic workers laws that made it unaccommodating to handle house helps.
The law, which is in line with the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention, declared all domestic workers be entitled to the same Labour rights as other employees in the Republic of Kenya. They were allowed sick leave, 2 days off in a week, 21 days annual leave with full salary, maternity leave, a safe working place, and many more entitlements.
About their salaries, they are supposed to earn at least Ksh 4,577 depending on their workplace. This offered them job securities and better income to support their families.
And on top of that, when you are caught harassing them, you will be penalized with a fine not exceeding Ksh. 50,000 or imprisoned for a term not exceeding 3 months or both. (The employment act 2007).
Due to these laws, having a nanny means having more responsibilities. It makes the simple task of raising a child more challenging rather than fun. As a result, to pass that liability to a third party, daycares stand a better chance to resolve this problem.
It’s A Guarantee The Daycare Business Will Yield Lucrative Returns
Once you open a daycare, you have a guarantee of quick returns.
For instance, this is how I observed some daycare making profit with 20 kids.
1 daycare charged Ksh 100 per kid in a day. Making a total of Ksh 48,000 in a month excluding weekends. This amounted to Ksh 15,000+ profit, after paying the assistant (a helper in daily activities such as general cleaning) and daily costs like lighting, water, toys, among other overheads.
But in most cases,
- These daycares owners operate in their houses. This helps them to cut the cost of renting a commercial area for a daycare business.
- Parents prepare their own kids’ meals or pay extra charges for the owners to do it on their behalf.
However, this is different from other big commercial daycares.
They are located in big cities where the population is high, are more advanced, and offer a variety of services such as:
- Preparing meals for the kids
- Provide toys and spacious playing grounds
- Teach kids how to read, write, speak in English, and general etiquette.
For these types of daycares, this is how they earn.
Taking the same example of 20 kids, here parents are willing to pay Ksh. 30,000 per term. This makes a total of Ksh 600,000. And in a month, you can talk about Ksh 100k profit after all overheads.
There is a Ready Market
Let’s back this claim with some facts.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) 2019 data shows that Kenya has 47.6 million people. Which is an increase from 37.7 million people in the census done in 2009.
When this population was grouped in different age brackets, children between 0-14 years made 18,891,577 million (39.03%) people in Kenya.
Also, the world population review of 2019 reported, for every 20 sec a child is born.
The increasing number of children, plus the high concentration of people with families in urban and growing towns, create a perfect market condition to set up a daycare business.