Akwaaba to GHANA: the adventures of the USC micro-business team

Oasis Bar, Cape Coast, Ghana

These kids got some major beats

Ye Fremi Ya Cacra (My name is Ya (the day I was born) Cacra (second born twin), and the past 10 days I have spent in Ekumfi Ekotsi, Ghana. These 10 days have blown by, and I can honestly say I almost teared up upon the goodbyes. My time spent working with 21 other USC students on microfinance development in Ekotsi have taught me more about my passion, skills, microbusiness and not to mention drumming and my dance skills (or lack there of) than I could ever have hoped to learn in a textbook or lecture. For this I owe a big May dasi (thank you) to the students, our advisor, the directors, Clare and Willie (coordinator and field officer/part time rap star), Allen even though he failed to take showers, Assomoa, and of course our amazing translators, all of whom get paid little to nothing to work so hard.  The hard work choosing students through many interviews, and the time sacrificed by our Global Business Brigades E-Board planning the trip to a T paid off. Our team turned out to be incredibly dynamic, and to be frank, they would all be on my dream team, or as our advisor Janet would say, “apocalypse team”.  Never before have I encountered students that worked so well together, but also were not afraid to offer each other very constructive criticism. With the brainpower and motivation from our team, we were able to accomplish more than any other microfinance group in Ekumfi Ekotsi to date. Past brigade teams laid down some very important framework for our team, and we were able to effectively revamp the framework to make the microfinance institution in Ekumfi Ekotsi set on a sustainable path to succeed, and in turn, help the development of the impoverished village.

Mr. Eshun, President of the Ekotsi Bank

It is always hard to depict in words what I feel from my experience on this trip, and how I felt while on the trip. Words simply cannot describe the sense of unity with the community and accomplishment our team felt after witnessing the IPO of the Ekotsi Community Development Fund, the long line of community members eager to attend an educational seminar on the function of the bank, and the similarly long line of first and second time loan applicants.  In addition, the cultural experience and love felt all around from these incredibly vigorous, entrepreneurial and caring Ghanaian people goes unmatched to any experience I have had thus far in a developing country. For the first time in my life, and in my exposure to development work, I was able to contribute to actual results that I could see by the end of my trip, and leave knowing that these results will continue to culminate after I leave. The framework has been set, and now has actual functioning to work on a daily basis without outside assistance. THIS is what development work is about—the marriage of outside expertise with grassroots local knowledge. I cannot wait to go back in 5, 10 years and see how the Fund is doing. I have posted at the end the three main projects we focused on in the development of business and financial services in Ekotsi.

Dima with major attitude

Scarface! + Chris

Besides being so fortunate to have such a wonderful group to work with, the place we stayed was so much nicer relative to where GB usually stays. We were about a 40-minute ride outside of Ekotsi in a beach town called Biriwa. Though not right on the beach, we were set on a hill overlooking the beautiful Ghanaian coast line, which we enjoyed thoroughly from our daily morning yoga sessions and one time P90x workout session on the roof.  Though the only running water could be found in the boys commons, we had very few problems with mosquitoes, and a clean room every day, along with delicious breakfast and dinner cooked by Mama herself. Mama owns 4 other guesthouses besides the one in which we stayed and is well versed on American culture as she lived in Philadelphia for a long time, and her children go to school in the states. I will miss her genuine kindness and caring soul. New Years was an interesting experience when we visited the other brigade groups who were staying at a fancy hotel with a pool. Needless to say, there are some substantial cultural differences between New Years in the states and that in Ghana. Ghanaians go to church, while Americans party—we blasted the song “shots” in our bus while passing the community church choir and we could not leave the party early because our bus drivers had decided to attend church.  Religious tolerance was one of the most outstanding aspects of Ghanaian life to me. I had always believe that the US was the most tolerant of religion, but I think the Ghanaians may have us beat, if not at least at our level in the states. Within the small, close knit community of Ekumfi Ekotsi even, Muslims and Christians coexisted without any controversy. Interreligious marriages are common in Ghana and are in no way frowned upon.

Cape Coast Slave Castle

Dima and her death grip

I could go on and on writing about these past few days, but for the sake of my ADD generation, I will sum up the things I will miss other than those mentioned before. The directors: President Mr. Eshun with his grandfatherly wise-ness and delicious pineapples, Mr. Duncan, the treasurer and also VIP for our purposes on the trip, and his incredibly sharp mind, Harry, the secretary and the best actor of the group, Mershak, by far the best translator, his male model looks and his philosophical mindset through which he wrote a book as only a 19 year old called “The Four Powerful Human Traits,” Mohammed and Grace, our other translators who could really pop lock and drop it, and the little kids, especially “scarface” and Dima who all had some crazy attitude (and braiding hair skills I personally experienced against my will). I will miss the women yelling at 5am daily the products they carry on their heads, and the nonstop drumming coupled with the roosters for a complete soundtrack by 6am.  I will miss the constant “ WHAT is your name” and Willie’s distinct “ALO.” I will miss the door-to-door visits we partook on to meet the community members on a personal basis and learn about their lives. I will miss the community dance offs and drinking water from bags. I will miss the soccer games in the village, on the beach and at our guesthouse. I will forever carry on the message I took from experiencing Cape Coast slave castle- the site of the largest slave trade known to man, and I will never forget standing on the ground a foot and a half thick of fossilized solid human waste during this incredible time of injustice to humanity.  I will miss the humidity, but will get that back in a few days when I head to Brazil! I will miss it all, but I will come back soon enough. Never good byes, always a pause. Adventures to be continued…

She has extensions...

Breakdown of our work

Shareholder!

(1) Shareholder model: 1/3 of the students, including myself, worked on this aspect of the CDF to assist in raising capital to in turn raise money for more loans, and community projects in a sustainable way with involvement from community members. To do so, and after much deliberation and drastic changes in plans, we came up with a promotion. With the money each student sets aside for the eventual investment in the community, we decided to match each share bought by the community member with another share. A member could buy up to 5 shares, pay 25 GHC for them, and have 10 shares owned at the bank. In return, the shareholder would also receive lower interest rates on loans, voting rights and 40% dividends at the end of the year. Furthermore, our community investment fund would contribute GHC 150 to a child scholarship program if a certain number of shares we sold. Needless to say, after the directors of the bank were well versed on this model, they had no problem convincing members to buy into it. We ended up developing one little catch to this promotion which happened our second to last day in the community—the members would have to attend an educational seminar held by us students and the translators to educate them on the costs and benefits of the CDF before they could buy shares. The goal is not only to allow this CDF to prosper, but to promote financial literacy community wide. The program was an absolute success: over 355 shares were sold, and the majority of the community members bought 5 shares. To give a little perspective into how shocking that number is, the average community member in Ekumfi Ekotsi lives on less than 1 USD a day and to be able to afford 5 shares, an average community member would be investing a months worth of savings.

Main directors of the Bank

Line to buy shares

(2) Loans Process- another 1/3 of the students worked on developing a loan application form and process that would be more suitable to the CDF directors’ understanding and needs. A prior brigade had developed forms before even arriving in Ekotsi, which led to an inadequate form that often the directors did not pay attention to because they did not understand the fancy financial terms. This team of students developed a form after a constructive conversation with the directors about how they usually look for a viable loan applicant and business ploy. By adapting certain terms and sections to fit the directors, they would have a more formal and accountable tracking system for assessing loan applicants.

(3) Compensation- another 1/3 of the students worked on how to adequately compensate the fund’s directors for the opportunity cost they face since they sacrifice their time that could be spent earning money as volunteers to help run this community development fund. After much deliberation with the directors, it was decided that they could each receive up to 1% (total 10% because there are 10 directors) at the end of the year when profits were declared, and shareholders assess if they have done their job sufficiently. If not, they could risk only having 0.5% or 0% at the end of the year. In turn, this would help foster both more investment in the work done by the directors, and also community involvement in accountability in leadership.