By Betsy Ramser Jaime
‘I am Benjamin Amofa by name. I am 27 years of age and also a Ghanaian too. When I was young, I decided to start a business to support myself during my school days because we are a children of 4 to my mother, so my mother could not take all these burdens on herself. I started going to the farm for firewood, mangoes, oranges, and sold it to support myself and my brothers. it wasn’t easy though, but I have to make a step before I can reach my goal.’
Once Benjamin finished school, he decided to continue with entrepreneurship. With the support of his mother, and using capital from her cassava farm, Benjamin had around $850 to get started. Today he is able to use his profits to support himself and also help to send his brothers to school.
In his business, Benjamin sells phones and accessories. So far he has received four Zidisha funded loans and in joining Zidisha, he found himself in a great position to greatly expand his inventory levels. Today he is able to have large quantities of stock on hand.
With his first Zidisha funded loan, he raised $13 to purchase additional stock of phones and accessories. Shortly thereafter, he raised his second loan for $35, writing, ‘Please, the business requires money so if I have the goods to meet my customers demands my business will grow well. Though, my loan limit is not all that big, but a little drop of water makes a mighty ocean. So I will use any little amount I get from my lenders to grow my business to attract more customers. I know with time all things will be possible. From the GHS 190 loan, I will use it to purchase Android cables, Android chargers, Class protectors and pen drives. These are things I use the money for. Thank you.’
The following month, in November, Benjamin requested a loan of $98 from Zidisha lenders to solve another problem that his customers were facing. In his community, he discovered that many people complained about the poor performance of their Android phone batteries. Therefore, he was able to stock up on power banks. With this loan, he was also able to increase his stock of keypad phones, pen drives, and inpods.
Most recently, Benjamin raised his largest loan yet, of of $181 in December, 2020, writing, ‘Because the power outage in my village is too high due to that the demands are very high. Many students in the village doing their researches find it very difficult and it is affecting them very hard so if I get this loan I will purchase these items and help them to do their researches successfully. The power banks will help them to continue their studies when the light goes off and it will also help me to get enough profit and to make the repayment on time. Thank you.’
After receiving his December loan, Benjamin kindly took to his discussion page and shared, ‘The heart of my lenders is a heart of Gold! Thank you very much. The loan has helped me to the extent that my customers are so happy I was able to meet their demands due to that, they have come with new customers to buy from me and they are demanding more power banks and keypad phones in my village so the next loan will help me to buy more to meet their demands.’
Would you like to make a difference in the life of an entrepreneur like Benjamin? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to read about Zidisha business owners around the world.
