In the last few days I have been thinking of what one can do with Ksh.158 Billion. By all standards that is some good money but imagine leaving such amount to rot somewhere! According to the recent survey by Nielsen Kenya commission by OLX, Kenyans could be sitting on a gold mine worth 158B shillings in their homes in form of unused goods in their homes.

To add a little bit of context to this, compare what we are talking about with value of Kenyan GDP based on the last financial year. Last year's economic output (GDP) was US$ 37. 32B, the value of the un-used goods that people are willing to sell is valued at 4.94% of the GDP.

The survey was carried out across the country with the exception of North Eastern and Western. Nairobi region leads in unused goods worth 69B shillings followed closely by Eastern and Central with 26B and 22B respectively. And the fact that Western was not included in the survey means the value of the unused goods could even be much higher.

The value of the unused art collections per capita (per person) is the highest at Ksh. 144,073 followed by furniture at Ksh. 27,5 and Computers/Laptops Ksh. 25,057

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.

OLX (www.olx.co.ke) 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.