By Betsy Ramser Jaime
35-year old Emel Kwaku Ehlah grew up in Lapaz, Ghana with his extended family. As a student, he completed his studies at Kinbu Secondary Technical School in Accra. After graduating, he earned a job working as a lotto checker with the intention to raise enough money to attend Ambassadors College and earn a diploma in Graphic Design.
Once he earned his diploma, he worked in a variety of design related roles before deciding that he was ready to venture out on his own.
Today Emel runs his own business offering graphic design services, general printing, photography, video coverage, branding, and selling photo frames.
Sharing more about his personal life, Emel writes, ‘I have four kids and my firstborn wants to become a musician, the second a businesswoman, the third wants to become a doctor and the last one a Revered Minister. I love music especially spiritual songs, hymns, and choral tunes, and also love the work of God (Evangelism and Preaching etc).’
Emel has been with the Zidisha community for less than a year but is already seeing a big difference in his business. He’s raised 6 Zidisha funded loans and secured amounts ranging from $19 to $281.
With his first two loans, Emel worked to purchase supplies and renovate his photo studio. He purchased a lamination machine, photo paper, inks, photo frames, paint, plywood, cement, a new door, and door locks.
A few months later, as Emel prepared for the holiday season he raised a loan for $33 and also one for $88. He shared, ‘As we are getting to the end of the year I will be having a lot of printing contracts such as Letterhead, Invitation Cards, Season Greeting Cards from companies so I want to get a new printer so as the pressure on the other printer will be less and also help me to deliver my jobs on time.’
He also increased his supply of photo frames, as photos are often given as gifts to friends and family around Christmas.
As the new year rolled around, Emel was excited to raise another loan, this one for $204, and to share his progress with the Zidisha community, ‘Good afternoon to you all lenders, and thanks so much for the last loan you gave me am so grateful God bless you. I am pleased to tell you that the last loan I took has helped secure a place to display my photo frames, so therefore am going to invest in the photo frames again and also buy a photo stand to display them. So basically am going to purchase photo frames and a Photo display stand.’
Most recently, as of March 2021, Emel is continuing to purchase photo frames and is also venturing into buying plain polo shirts that he can customize for groups of people.
Would you like to help other entrepreneurs like Emel? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to see what our Zidisha business owners are doing around the world.
Betsy is a Writer and Editor living in Florida with her husband. She has been writing with Zidisha for 5 years and loves sharing the inspiring stories of Zidisha entrepreneurs. You can connect with her on her personal website.
