Sophia Shaibu

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Sophia Shaibu by Christian Rural Aid Network in Ghana. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 7 months, Christian Rural Aid Network will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Sophia is a married woman of 27 years with one child. She has received a formal education through senior high and also did vocational training for sewing. She now works as a fishmonger in Abura. Sophia purchases the fish fresh, smokes and packages it, then sells the fish. She smokes the fish in large clay ovens that are roughly four feet long. She decided to take out a loan because she had a small amount of capital on her own and the price of fish was continually increasing. With her first loan for CRAN, Sophia purchased three large pans of fish. Since using the loan, Sophia has continued to reinvest in her business using her profits, and she is now able to purchase four or five pans each time. In the coming year, Sophia hopes to be able to purchase 20 pans at once.

Since taking out the loan, Sophia has begun saving with a susu savings program.* She hopes to use her savings in the future to buy a piece of property and build a house on it. She has also more than doubled her monthly profits. Sophia has not had any difficulty in paying back the loan.

Sophia reports that the loan has had a number of positive effects on her life aside from her business. Her increase in profits has enabled her to buy more food for her family than she could previously. She also reports that it used to be difficult to pay her children’s school fees, but now it has become easier. Sophia believes that CRAN helps its clients by providing them capital so that their businesses can go on.

*Susu savings is an informal savings plan run by financial NGOs, credit clubs, and self-help groups. The clients pledge to save a set amount per day, and then for a fee equal to a day’s worth of savings, a collections officer visits each client on a regular basis to collect the deposit.