By Betsy Ramser Jaime
At 28 years old, Abubakari Gafaru is the operator of a printing press and cybercafe. As a student, he received an education at JHS and SHS at Nkwnta North. After graduating, he began working as an IT Technician and eventually went out on his own.
Abubakari has been in the Zidisha community since late 2020 and started with a $12 loan to add new machinery to his shop. A month later in January 2021, he raised $31, $78, $17, and $85 to save towards a camera, sharing, I will add up to buy a camera for my shop so I can start taking passport size photos.’ He also hoped to add photo paper, A4 paper, printer ink, toners, and film.
For Abubakari, having a new camera is a much bigger deal than some people might imagine. Previously he had been using an older model that didn’t work as well. He also spent a significant amount of money renting a camera, so he found he was ready to have a good quality camera of his own.
As he requested his January loans, he mentioned that his cybercafe was doing well and he had been able to sell a lot of printing items. On April 27, 2021, he took to his Zidisha discussion page and shared, ‘everything is perfect and moving well. I really see more improvement in my cybercafé and printing center.’
Within a little over a year of receiving Zidisha funded loans, he raised a substantial $620 loan for his business, writing, ‘Since my business is in the field of printing and photography business is improving through the help of Zidisha and the lender, I wish to have a loan to buy printing items to sell because the demand is high since I am the only one who is selling them here in my community. I would like to buy things like pigment and dye ink,5 x7, photo papers, certificate papers, brown and white envelopes, A3 and A4 photo sticker papers.’
As he began the new year in 2022, Abubakri once again wanted to show his appreciation, saying, ‘I appreciated the full support all the backers show to me during my project funding, thanks very much am most grateful. The money will be used in my building project.’
Would you like to make a difference in the life of an entrepreneur like Abubakri? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Updates page to see what other 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.
