“Today I can provide for my children”
Provider, bread winner, budding entrepreneur, these are the words that come to mind when Gladys Saah tells her story. Gladys is a 45 year old mother of five from the town of Ampomah in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. For a long time she was a struggling petty farmer, barely making ends with her husband, Kweku. The two were small scale farmers on a measly 2 acres of land and barely making enough produce to fend for themselves. They endured this life for a year before having their first child 24 years ago. However after the birth of her child Gladys refused to let her child grow up deprived. She started a kenkey production business using the corn yield from her farm. This small scale production kept the family afloat but barely. As the years went by her small scale businesses served as the main source of sustenance for her family but they still lived in hardship. Ten years ago she decided to expand her business portfolio some more to bring in more income for her growing family. Gladys started a breakfast service, serving cocoa drinks with bread for her customers. This business helped immensely as the family could barely make ends meet. Even with the additional income of the breakfast business, Gladys and her family struggled on a daily bases, making sacrifices for one another to keep the family financially afloat. Her children couldn’t attend school regularly because there was no consistent income to pay their tuition and buy the learning materials they needed, instead they stayed home when tuition couldn’t be paid and helped their mother in her businesses.
From her initial capital of 500 Ghana Cedis, Gladys has been able to pay her initial debt and has grown her personal capital to 2000 Ghana Cedis.
A breakthrough was in sight however when, in November 2011, Gladys came into contact with VisionFund Ghana, previously Association of Progressive Entrepreneurs in Development (APED). She saw an opportunity to take a sustainable loan and also get the necessary support from VisionFund to grow her business. In light of this Gladys took an initial loan of 400 Ghana Cedis as capital to expand her business. All went well and with support and guidance in business management and growth from VisionFund, Gladys’ humble business started to grow rapidly. From her initial capital of 500 Ghana Cedis, Gladys has been able to pay her initial debt and has grown her personal capital to 2000 Ghana Cedis. Gladys however saw an opportunity to grow her business even more and after consultation with VisionFund Ghana she discovered she was eligible to take her seventh loan of 3000 Ghana Cedis she subsequently did to grow her budding conglomerate even further.
“I am a proud and happy woman thanks to VisionFund Ghana. The loan has helped me greatly; two more businesses have emerged out of the loan with improvement in existing businesses."
Today Gladys is proud proprietor of not just three, but five fast growing and profitable businesses. She has been able to acquire an additional three acres of farm land, expanding her farm from two to five acres and employs farmhands to run it. She has also been able to purchase a refrigeration unit for the storage of her cocoa drinks enabling her to mass produce and store them without them going bad. Gladys has also just recently bought a taxi which is run by her husband, transporting people from their secluded community to their desired destinations and has also acquired a Motor-King mini truck which she uses to ferry market women and their goods to the market on market days. Life is on the up for Gladys. “More important than all these I have been able to put my children through school. My first born, Vivian, is on her way to university and the second, Augustine, will be enrolling in Senior High School this term. The other three, Frank, Veronica and Akwasi are all enrolled in preparatory primary and Junior High School as well because I want the best possible education for them.” Gladys and Kweku have also built a two bedroom, concrete attachment to the mud house they live in to make more room for their growing family.
Gladys can proudly say that she is able to cater for all her children and is also helping others in her community by creating jobs for them. “I am a proud and happy woman thanks to VisionFund Ghana. The loan has helped me greatly; two more businesses have emerged out of the loan with improvement in existing businesses. I aim at setting up other businesses and continue to have improved family income that will aid the dreams of my family to be achieved.”