By Betsy Ramser Jaime
Mohammed Karfo is from Ghana and describes himself as a ‘young man with an entrepreneurial mind.’ Upon finishing his high school studies, he tried getting into a university but wasn’t able to because of his financial restraints.
Seeing one door close, he pushed forward to find a new direction. He then obtained employment as a Construction Laborer and later moved on to become a Factory Hand in a Ghana steel company called Sentuo. While working at Sentuo, he came up with the idea to move into entrepreneurship and start a scraps business. He shares that this business is ‘what I wanted to do for long time but was not having the resources.’
With his dream in mind, he slowly started saving to make his dream a reality. Eventually, with the minimum capital requirements, he was able to start. In his business, he buys a variety of scraps including: metal scraps, electronic scraps, copper, aluminum and others. The business is based in the city of Tema which is located in the Greater Accra region.
Getting started, Mohammad knew that he would need both a cart and some field workers to assist him and to help his business continue to grow. To solve this problem he shares, ‘I bought one cart and started going from house to house and mechanic shop to shop until I get a little money over what I started with and get two boys who am currently working with.’
As a member of the Zidisha community, he has raised 4 loans since joining Zidisha in November 2018. With each of his four loans under $30, he is a great example that a little money can go a long way.
On October 15, he took to his discussion board and proudly shared his progress with his lenders as he said, ‘I say thank you to Zidisha for the loan that they grant me, I appreciate it much. I have a vision of becoming a bigger entrepreneur in Ghana and Africa and I believe my lenders on Zidisha will help me become what I want to become, thank you.’
With each of his four loans, he was able to expand his inventory of scraps, slowly building his business. With his most recent loan of $29 in December, he shared, ‘I will use this loan to buy more scraps in this Christmas season, a lot of people will be disposing their scraps at this last month of the year.Therefore this loan will help me a lot in my business.’ While he’s discovered that the scraps business is certainly not easy work, Mohammad has noted that hard work and dedication are two of the most important ingredients for success in his business.
Would you like to make a difference in the life of an entrepreneur like Mohammad? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to read stories of other business owners all around the world.
