Juliet Nancy Garchie

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

I was excited to meet a loan client named Nancy, since that is my name also! Nancy told me that she was named after her father’s mother, whose name was also Nancy. I met Nancy in her home, which happens to be close to the room where I am staying. In fact, Nancy knows my neighbors, so we had a nice time chatting about life in our neighborhood, and about how Nancy came to be selling groundnut paste and undergarments!

Nancy makes and sells groundnut paste, and also sells undergarments for men and children from two big plastic bags that she carries around. She told me that she sells to people on the streets, in office buildings and hospitals. Here in Ghana, it is not unusual for vendors to enter these places selling their wares from office to office, or department to department.) Nancy told me that she sells “anywhere and everywhere where there are a lot of people.” Nancy’s husband is a fireman with the Ghana National Fire Service. This is a respected position, but offers very little in terms of monetary compensation. Together, Nancy and her husband have three children ranging in age from eight to eighteen. Nancy told me that her 18 year old son just graduated from senior high school and is planning to continue studying visual arts in university.

Before Nancy took this loan from CRAN, she experienced a rough patch. She had operated a small grocery store for many years down the street from her house. One day, without warning, the owners of the shop “ejected” (evicted) Nancy because their daughter wanted to start her own business in the shop. Because of this, Nancy went through a period when finances became quite difficult. She was staying at home every day and wondering what to do next. Nancy’s mother-in-law had made and sold groundnut paste (peanut butter) for many years. Nancy decided to give this business a try. She had initial success because her customers liked her groundnut paste, but she needed an injection of capital to really get the business off the ground. That’s when Nancy took this first loan from Christian Rural Aid Network (CRAN). With the 400 cedis she received, Nancy bought groundnuts, containers and labels for her business. Each label says “Nancy’s Groundnut Paste”, so of course I had to buy several jars o share with my friends!

Nancy still had money left over after buying the groundnuts, containers and labels, and so she decided to diversify her product line by buying an array of men’s and children’s undergarments to sell. When I asked why she chose this particular line of goods, Nancy told me that when a hungry friend wants groundnut paste and says she’ll pay for it the next day, she finds she cannot refuse to give it to her, even though she often never sees the money. She will not, however, sell the undergarments to someone unless they pay cash upon delivery.

Nancy uses her income to “support” (help) her husband in paying for food and other bills, though he pays the majority of those expenses. Nancy mostly reinvests into her inventory, buying more groundnuts or undergarments. Within five years, Nancy would like to scale up her business to the point where she is distributing her groundnut paste to big stores. This would allow her to save enough profits so that all her children can graduate from university. Her ultimate desire is to see all her children become independent and successful. Nancy is a little camera shy, so I have instead included a photo below of the fishing harbor near her home, with an old British fort in the background. Nancy tells me she is grateful to her Kiva lenders and says, “They should continue to help others. God bless them for doing this wonderful thing.”