The Success Story of August in Ghana

Jessie is a 58 year old divorced woman with three children. The first two who are 38 years and 33 years are both married while the last who is 18 is in the Senior High School. She hails from Bukom in the Greater Accra Region. She was however born and bred in Kaneshie, Accra. Currently, she lives at Bubuashie but sells at the Kaneshie market where she has her shop.

Jessie used to sell cosmetics but later changed to the sale of cloth-ing since she felt she will make more profit. She usually opens her shop at 7:00 am and closes at 5:30 pm.
Her second child settled in the United States. He used to regularly send her money that she could invest in her business. But as he got married, remittance stopped immediately, which crushed her plan to expand her business. As she discussed about her situation with a friend of hers, she was introduced to ID-Ghana.
After making contacts and receiving our Credit Officers at her business place, she qualified for a first loan and received GH¢ 300 in October 2007. She again received GH¢ 500 and GH¢ 700 in April and November 2008 respectively. Currently, she is a Front Desk partner and her fourth loan of GH¢ 500 is being used to expand her business.
With the support from ID-Ghana she has been able to significantly diversify her business: with time, she included panties, braziers and scarves. Before taking the loan, her sales were ranging between GH¢ 10 and GH¢ 20 daily. Today, her sales range between GH¢ 30 and GH¢ 100 daily! Besides her savings of GH¢ 100 with ID-Ghana, she is also saving with UT Bank. Currently, she is able to meet her financial obligations without any headache. She is happy she is able to pay her last born’s fees without difficulties; she even withdrew some money from her savings for this purpose. Her greatest dream is to build a house for her children. She is confident she will be able to realise this dream since she is actively saving towards it!

The Success Story of January in Ghana

Jesse is 58 years old and is married to Mr. Thomas Addo. They are both Ga people from the Greater Accra Region. They have been married for 20 years now and have three children - Sarah Annan 38, single and unemployed, Justice Annan 35, married and living in London, and Michael Addo 17, a form two student of Mankessim Secondary Technical School.
They have been living at Bubuashie, a suburb of Accra for the past sixteen years in her family house, a four bedroom apartment which is shared with her other siblings.
In1981, Jesse was working as a sales girl at Swanlake supermarket located at North Kaneshie. She worked there for six years before resigning.
Soon after that, she started selling panties at the Kaneshie Market with an initial capital of GH¢ 0.20 (then ¢ 2,000). She was rein-vesting all the profit she made back into the business which en-abled her to add other items customers were demanding such as singlets, ladies’ skirts, boxer shorts, socks, scarves, T-shirts, nightgowns, towels, braziers etc.
Between 2005 and 2007 there were other demands which re-quired additional capital. In her quest to meet these demands, she had discussions with some friends to find means to raise the needed capital. A friend introduced her to ID-Ghana. She was granted her first loan of GH¢ 300 in November 2007, a second loan of GH¢ 500 in April 2008 and the third and current loan of GH¢ 700 at the end of November 2008.
These loans have helped her to add items such as bed sheets, curtains, shedda materials, gray bath, voile etc, which are on high demand. Her capital base has increased to GH¢ 3,000 from GH¢ 2,000, and her daily sales to GH¢ 50 from GH¢ 30. She has also built up savings of GH¢ 160 while operating her business in a small metal container at the market.
She feels ID-Ghana has been of great help to her as it helped her meet all the demands of her customers. She more specifically thinks the trainings she received so far on Costing and Pricing, Importance of Savings, Customer Care, etc have helped her in running her business effectively. She also considers the regular visits of Lucas Dovie (the Credit Officer in charge) to find out how her business is doing as a source of encouragements.
Her plan for the future is to have a large stock of all the products she sells so that she does not run short of supplies. For example, today, some customers come looking for calico and cotton hand-kerchief which she does not have in stock.
Her other plans are to save enough money to see her last child through his education up to university level and to acquire land to put up a house of her own.

The Success Story of August in Ghana

Rose is a divorced woman who is 56 years old. She has two children with her ex-husband who both are adults and are working. She comes from Kwehu in the Eastern Region of Ghana. She has lived in Accra all her life with her parents. Presently she lives at Awudome Estate at Kaneshie, close to the market. Rose sells beads and jewelleries at Kaneshie market. She starts work at 9:00 am and closes 6:00 pm. She got to know ID-Ghana through some friends who are partners of the organisation. She was then in need of a loan to enable her expand her business. She took her first loan of GH¢ 100/- (€ 62/-) on the 20th, April, 2007 that she invested in her stock. Her second loan of GH¢ 200/- (€ 124/-) taken on 21st, September, 2007 enabled her to increase further her stock. She is now in the course of her third loan of GH¢ 250/- (€ 156/-) that she was granted on 2nd, May, 2008. Before taking the loan, she used to have a weekly turnover of GH¢ 300/- (€ 186/-). She manage in the course of three loans to bring this turnover to GH¢ 800/- (€ 498)! Having increased her income, she is now able to support her elder sister in taking care of their mother who is so old and doesn’t work anymore. She is also able to make contributions whenever her family head ask all family members to contribute in solving a family problem. But for Rose, loans are not all: she thinks every partner should undergo training to improve her/his business. Her preferred topics? Customer care, importance of savings and profit calculation. They all decisively contributed to her success she says! Her future plan is to build a house on a land her father bought some years back. An old dream she can realistically hope to make true before long!

An aerial view of Kaneshie market in Accra, Ghana