‘Sam Daniel is my name.’ In addition to being a 24-year-old business owner, he serves as a child activist, fighting for the rights of children throughout his local community.
With younger siblings to look after, he also intentionally sets aside part of his business earnings to support his siblings and fund their education.
In describing his business, Sam shares, ‘My business is all about food and beverages. That is mostly, the selling of bread, peanuts and some covid-19 materials. This business has been in existence for almost 8 years with customers from the Ivory Coast. Due to the nature of my business I sometimes even do an exchange of CFA into cedis. Because of the Ivory coast customers.’
Since joining the Zidisha community in December, Sam has already raised multiple loans to keep building and growing his business.
With his first few loans in December, Sam managed to purchase some additional inventory of bread, face masks, face shields, and peanuts.
A month later, in January 2021, he raised a loan for $171 and another for $221, allowing him to continue purchasing new supplies for his shop.
Most recently, in March, Sam raised his largest loan yet, $462, and shared with lenders, ‘In as much as we are in a state of global pandemic Sam Business community has been an exception to the service and delivery to my customers. Due to the geographical location of the business people in the nearby community have required that I get a new shop in the nearby community so that my service will be facilitated. I will appeal to lenders in the community to support me with a loan to be able to put a structure so that I can stock the shop with bread, peanuts as well as these covid-19 items to facilitate the services of my business to some other communities, not only the community alone but also to institutions like schools who employ my services to supply them with bread and peanuts for their pupils.’
At the end of March, Sam took to his discussion page to share with his lenders about how things have been going with the business. He wrote, ‘It is believed when you empower the youth through their affiliated interest of work you have to empower the nation and the world at large to be successful. I know your loan will go a long way to change the many lives because through this loan a new branch will be opened and someone will be employed … Thank you all to my current lenders who believe in me they will surely deliver. Am much appreciative of having confidence and competence in me. Thank you all.’
Now, as of April, Sam has reported that his inventory is moving quickly and sales are continuing to rise!
Would you like to help other entrepreneurs like Sam? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to see what our 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.
