By Betsy Ramser Jaime
Abdulai Ayaaba Sumaila shares, ‘I was born in Kokooso, a village in the Asonafo South District in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. Because my parents were living there at that time. I attended Kokooso primary and junior high school after which I had admission to attend Bawku senior high school in 2007. In secondary school, I had a passion to do business. Because of the financial status of my parents, I knew it would be difficult to continue my education to tertiary after secondary school. I started saving, a small amount of money that relatives gave to me as my pocket money. After my completion, I was having Gh120.00 (30 dollars) which I knew I could use to start some business.’
Today, Abdulai operates a business selling credit cards and sim cards for many telecommunication networks in Ghana such as, ‘M.T.N, Vodafone, Airtel, Tigo, Onetech, and Glo.
Abdulai believes that this was the ideal business to start because these cards are currently in demand in his community and help people to make calls and use the internet. He also found the startup costs to be low with little risk involved.
When he’s not busy running his business, Abdulai likes football and also enjoys reading everything from storybooks to magazines and novels.
With six Zidisha-funded loans under his belt, Abdulai has been in a good position to slowly and steadily build his business to where it is today.
As he began with his first loan in 2016, he shared, ‘If I am granted with the loan, I will stock my shop with enough credit cards which will cost about 800GHS(200 dollars) and Sim cards which will cost about 120 GHS( 30 dollars) so that I will not be losing my customers due to insufficient or shortages of credit cards and Sim cards. I also intend to do a mobile money transfer business because my customers have been asking me all the time which is a very lucrative business, but due to my low capital I have not been able to start.’
Recently, in April 2022, Abdulai was able to raise $797 from Zidisha lenders and shared this update, ‘It has been life-changing with the help of Zidisha loans. I will be grateful if leaders help fund my loan. I want to expand my mobile money business to increase my profit margin. And I know with the help of this money that aim will be achieved. Long live Zidisha.’
Would you like to make a difference in the life of a Zidisha community member like Bismark? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to see how your Zidisha-funded loans are impacting other entrepreneurs 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.
