Empower 600 Women in Ghana with Microcredit Loans

People living at 'School Park Achie', a neighborhood at Nkawie Panin in the Nkawie District now have access to a provisions shop, thanks to the business skills of Tiwaah, a 48-year-old client of the Micro Credit Program being implemented by Self Help International (SHI) in some rural communities of the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Tiwaah, a mother of four, who has been a client of the program for 18 years now, says the shop has become a blessing to her neighborhood because items that they did not formerly have easy access to in the past are now  within their reach for them to buy. 

Until the establishment of her shop, her neighbors used to walk between two to three kilometers,or a distance of about 30 minutes, to Abonti Kesiamu to acquire these items. Hence, a round trip from her neighborhood to Abonti Kesiamu to buy everyday items took about one hour. 

“I established this shop only in May this year after I took a loan of 7,000 GHC from the Micro Credit Program which enabled me to buy and stock it with all these items”, she said.

The items being sold at Tiwaahs shop include provisions such as tinned fish, milk, milo, sugar, as well as toiletries such as soap, toothpaste, pampers and tissues and household items such as mosquito spray among many others.  

Tiwaahs dream is to run a multi-purpose one stop shop where community members can access most of their needs.

 “I  purchased a freezer to set up a cold store within the shop to sell fish and meat and a second freezer to sell a range of soft drinks, and other products that need to be refrigerated or frozen including malt, kaiser, puka, lucozade, shortbread, bottled and sachet water among many others. In addition, I have a fufu pounding machine so people can come and pound their fufu here,” she explains.

To make conditions in the shop more convenient, Tiwaah also spent money to connect pipe borne water to her shop so that she can cook her own meals right in the shop. “I even give some of my food to passersby when they come around at the time when I have prepared food, " she says.  

“Business is lucrative because it is the first and only provisions shop in this vicinity. Until I established this shop, people here would have to walk a significant distance to buy all the items being sold here”.

Recounting how she came to learn about the Micro Credit Program, she said “I was pregnant with my third child who is now 18 years old when I saw some women gathered in a house nearby. Upon interrogation, I was told the women were being organized to access loans from an NGO so I decided to join.”

“When I first joined the Micro Credit Program, I was selling kenkey by then. I asked for and received a loan of 100 GHC which I invested in my kenkey business and expanded it. I stopped my kenkey business only last year to enable me to venture into new business areas.”

Touching on her relationship with the Micro Credit Team over the past 18 years, Tiwaah said, “The Micro Credit Team has helped me a lot. They are quiet in retrieving their loans and do not expose their creditors like other organizations do. No one even knows I have been collecting loans from them. They also listen to us when we have issues so over the past 18 years, I have had no problem with them.”

Tiwaah was confident that she would choose the SHI Micro Credit Program over others if given a choice, saying, “This (the SHI Micro Credit Program) is my only source of money. I do not collect money from anywhere else. People are not even aware that I have taken a loan from them.”

“It (SHI) is a good organization. They know we are not well off and do not get angry if we delay in paying our loans. They help us a lot.”

She appealed to the Micro Credit Team to increase the amount of money loaned to her in her next loan acquisition so that she can put all her plans for her shop into action to enable her to serve her community even better, reiterating, “My shop has become a blessing to the community because things they could not buy in the past, they can now buy here.”

She also called on SHI to consider adding “Susu Collection”, which is the payment of small amounts of money on a monthly basis by loan clients as personal savings, to the Micro Credit Program, saying, “I was able to use my money from our local Susu Collection to buy a fridge. It can also be given back to the clients as a monetary package after they finally quit the Micro Credit Program.”

A group of palm oil processors at Juaben are poised to enhance their trade by expanding the land on which they now operate with the assistance of loans from the Micro Credit Program being implemented by Self Help International in some rural areas of the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Fifty-five-year-old Sarah, leader of the group, expressed her interest in expanding the land on which they are currently carrying out their activities to allow the present group members to broaden their activities and also pave the way for more women to join the group.

Sarah, a mother of six, was instrumental in the acquisition of the land on which the 30-member strong group of women are now located.

She started receiving loans from the Micro Credit Program three years ago with an initial amount of 1,000 GHC cedis.

However, following her desire for members of the group to expand their activities, she requested for a loan to acquire a machine that would speed up their work but the group was required to secure the land on which they operate to make the installation of the machine feasible.

Consequently, with the assistance of a loan from the Micro Credit Program, Sarah was able to secure ownership of the land by paying the required  amount of money to the local authorities in charge of land administration in her community.

“I received a loan of 10,000 GHC to which I added 16,000 GHC to acquire the one plot of land on which we are working at the cost of 26,000 GHC.

But after securing the land, Sarah realized that one plot of land was too small for the expansion of the palm oil processing business as she had envisaged.

“I am to acquire a second plot to ensure that the working space is large and spacious to provide enough room to support all the various steps involved in palm oil processing. I enjoy palm oil processing, hence I always try to do all in my power to enhance our work,” she said.

“We need a large piece of land so that all the women will have enough room to conduct their activities. We also need to be able to provide essential services like restrooms to create a comfortable working environment for the women.”

“Apart from the machine, we need to acquire new tanks for processing the nuts. These tanks are more voluminous than the iron pots we are currently using and will allow us to process large quantities of nuts at the same time.”

Sarah is optimistic about the future success of the palm oil processing business saying, “Palm oil processing is lucrative. All the women in the group are able to pay back their loans. Working with the Micro-Credit Program has been a big blessing to all of us”

“We provide a source of income for those who come to assist us in many ways. We have some men who work on the palm fruits to make it easier to access the nuts. Some men also help in crushing the cooked nuts in addition to the manual extraction of the oil from the nuts. A number of women also come to help with the removal  of the nuts from the fruit for a fee”

For Sarah, ensuring that the oil that she produces is of optimal quality is very important to the business. 

“We are careful with our oil processing and produce very high quality palm oil. We do not add any additives. If a company should conduct a quality test on our oil, they will realize it is genuine and free of additives.”

For the next steps in her business, Sarah will be happy to be assured of a ready market, saying, “I will be happy if we can be linked to companies that use palm oil as a raw material to enable us to have ready customers for our produce.”