"At Long last Fernando Rebiero the Portugues missionary blew his car horn, it was time to leave my old grand mom, with tears running down my black cheek, i was going to stay and live in a charity center for a number of years that i did not know for i was just a Child, I was just Seven years old"..

My name is Edward Marfo. I am 22 years old and a Ghanaian. I currently live in Abura Dunkwa in the central region of Ghana. i actually grew up in a orphanage center from the age of seven until i was sixteen . thus i lost my mom at a very tender age. upon living the charity center, i went and stayed with an uncle at Abura Dunkwa where i worked as a shop keeper at a local provision shop. three years ago , i started a local cyber cafe with just three computers. however in June of 2013, i closed the cyber cafe , sold off the computers to start the drug store business i am into now. i am a senior high school graduate. i have had a lot of experience in this life. Having to grow up without parents and living in the charity with people who had the same problems as mine made me strong and to know that in this world i am not alone . i always express my heart warm appreciation to those who have helped me in my journey through life till this day. My aim in life is to become a social entrepreneur and grow my drug store business to a point where i can open many branches nationwide and help those in need. As a young man, my greatest philosophy is that : i don't need a job, all i need is a breakthrough idea and with the little i have start so far, if i keep going i will be come an inspiration to the many youth in my country and continent at large . The first loan i raised really did helped me. i then raised a second loan which help instilled much confidence in my business. All along i have a plan as to how i want to progress. so midway down the repayment of my second loan, i applied to the District Clinic in my Locality to allow me to Bill prescription drugs as part of the National Health Insurance program. funny enough, they thought that i was too young to do a thing like that that but when they have come to inspect my shop and they realized it meets their standards, they were amazed. It was as part of their registration procedures that i had to travel to the capital in Accra that i happened to meet with Taylor Hannah the zidisha country ambassador for Ghana. She is such a nice person.

I was given the go ahead to begin issuing prescription drugs from the clinic. But i am taking it one at a time.

I invited a friend from the center where i grew up to join me so i can give him on the job training and after some time when he has perfected, we will open another shop in the district for him to go take care of that one.I have such a big dream, but i am taking one at a time, i am very hopeful even when against the odds that i have a service to humanity. I really wanted to maintain a 100% on time repayment rate with my previous loan but dealing with governments can be very frustrating and delaying at times and that did gave me a lot of headache, the bottom line is that i have learnt somuch through the process and now know how to handle such dalays so that it will not affect my rapayments with my current loan project.

thank you

I operate a drug store (mini pharmacy) on a very small scale. it is a licensed one . i sell the basic health care drugs like the paracetamol, multi vitamin capsules and syrup , pain killers and many more. i choose this kind of business because of the need for first aid drugs in my locality. on average, i make $20 a day before meeting Zidisha and the amazing lenders on this platform. upon coming into contact with you, lenders funded my loan of a $100 and upon taking new stock to fill my shop, sales jumped up and my daily sales increased from the previous $20 to $38 out of which 50% was my profit.

i did some savings and this also enabled me to pay back the loan on time as per the repayment schedule. i even adjusted the repayment at a point.

today as i speak, there has been the commencement of a market that was under construction just at where i have my shop. and the issue is that all the other villagers that comes to trade do come to my shop to buy the basic first aid drugs for their households. initially, i wanted to go on trek to these nearby villages but since they have been coming to my place, i have to stop.

Seriously speaking my drug or pharmacy business really require a lot of capital but i am willing to always learn from small beginnings and its struggles.

My business is a life saving one and i am so proud of the decision i took to go into that business although i did not know how i was going to grow. but because i had a greater why , today the Zidisha team and all the lenders have help me very much to which i am so grateful.

i applied to the District Clinic in my Locality to allow me to Bill prescription drugs as part of the National Health Insurance program. funny enough, they thought that i was too young to do a thing like that that but when they have come to inspect my shop and they realized it meets their standards, they were amazed. It was as part of their registration procedures that i had to travel to the capital in Accra that i happened to meet with Taylor Hannah, the Zidisha country ambassador for Ghana. She is such a nice person. I currently bill prescription drugs to a number of people that the hospital will direct to my shop for their medicine needs. however i had to accept only twenty people in a day for now. so with time i will increase the number as i develop.

As i wrote earlier, i operate a mini pharmacy shop in my community in the central region of Ghana.

however, if my loan application is fully funded, here are the cost and expenditure break down as to what i will use the money for.

i will use $800 to buy the basic Pain relievers which we call (pain killers ) .examples are asprin, para, bruffen and etc for both children and adults. so it includes both tablets and syrup. will be getting 20 medium boxes of each and there are so many of such pain relievers.

then i will use $300 for injectables. the string and the concoctions used for injections. they are quiet expensive but they are also in high demand. i will be getting 40 smaller boxes each.

then i will use $500 for malaria drugs, both tablets and syrup for children and adults and mosquito nets. with this also, due to the season, malaria cases are really on the rise for about three weeks now and it usually continue throughout the Hot sunny season so i want to be fully ready and capable.

then i will use $100 for contraceptives .

i will use $ 150 for antibiotics like Amoxacilin and the likes...

i will use $20 to buy some personal and entrepreneurship books to read and it was a promise i made to myself that anytime i take a loan, i will buy a book out of it to develop my intellect. i will buy E myth and unlimited power.

finally there maybe others that i will have to buy on the sport at the retail shop but this will not be more than $75.00.

it will bring a lot of changes to my business and lives would be saved in my community as well. i now have a market and a customer base and this will help me to do my repayments per scheduled and i now know how this government suystem works as a results i now know how to handle their delayed payments and as such it will not affect my repayments this time around.

thank you very much..