I Want My Family to Be Happy in Life

By Betsy Ramser Jaime

Sekyere Maxwell is the youngest in his family, the son of a farmer, and trader. He was raised in a farming community and after completing high school, he got a job working with his friends as a mason. Through this job, he was able to save up enough money to start his own shop.

Sekyere is motivated to help his family and others have an easier life than he has had as he shares, ‘In my locality, we labor to support new people who are willing to also work. I want my family to be happy in life and not suffer as I did and my young ones to become doctors, news writers, businessmen and women, and pastors to help the community where we live.’

When he’s not busy working on his business, Sekyere enjoys bringing together the children in his community to talk about how they can live a good life for themselves and for their community. He also likes reading books and playing football.

In describing his business, Sekyere shares, ‘I provide internet access, sell recharge cards of various telecommunication networks, check results of high school and basic school graduates, printing and registration. Is demanding because, it helps people, students who have completed writing their school exams to get access to their results and other information. People with mobile phones also buy some airtime recharge cards for either calls or Internet data. I chose this business because I sense it’s essential and profitable. This enables people to save their little resources on transport rather than travel for these products and services. I will use the returns to help my families and needy one’s in my community.’

As a member of the Zidisha community since 2016, Sekyere has now raised 5 Zidisha-funded loans for his business. These loans have ranged from $250 all the way up to $928.

With his first loan of $250, Sekyere set out to buy additional inventory of network air-time scratch cards and results checker cards. He believed that this loan and the positive changes in his business would result in an increase in profits by 6%.

One of the reasons why Sekyere loves his business is that he is able to help his customers save time so that they can get these services near their homes rather than traveling long distances.

Most recently, in July 2022, as he approached the Zidisha community for a loan of $299, he said, ‘Business has been moving as expected but the current world crisis has led to a rise in inflation in my country which is shrinking my working capital. The loan will be used to buy mobile airtime recharge cards and revamp my mobile money capital to improve and expand the business.’

Would you like to support a Zidisha entrepreneur like Sekyere? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to see how our other business owners are changing their lives and communities around the world.