Charles Obeng

Charles Obeng is fifty-five years old. He is married and the father of a son, who is in school. He lives with his family in a rented apartment at Ejura, a town in the Ashanti region of Ghana. He is a petty trader who trades in toothpaste, tooth brushes, radio sets, touch lights, and other items. He buys his supplies from wholesalers and retails them to his customers. He enjoys his trade very much. However, he is handicapped by low working capital and finds it difficult making enough in the face of general economic hardship. He therefore needs the loan to remain in business.

He wants to use the loan to buy new stock to serve his customers. He believes this will enable him to make a good income to expand his business. He is a member of the community group called Mawuli Trust Group. In this group, members guarantee for one another as social collateral to access loans and act as peer pressure to repay the loan.

Augustine is in the photo taken during his group meeting.