First Steps in Ghana

We landed in Accra, Ghana around 12:30 pm local on Tuesday and managed to get out of the airport within an hour.  We were greeted by a man holding a sign with “Utah State” written on it and a big smile on his face.  This was our driver and new friend ‘Master Fufu’.  After loading up our luggage we headed to where we would be staying for the next few days to rest and battle the jet lag.  After a few stops, we got taken to what I can only call a compound complete with high walls topped with razor wire and a main gate that meant business.  Once inside, it felt a lot more comfortable.  Our host family has a son that lived in the capital and we were staying in his office (which had 6 bedrooms in the back) until a ride to Abomosu could be finalized.  Our first meal in Ghana that day… Chinese.

Friday we took off to Abomosu in a suburban with some of the luggage hogtied to the roof and the rest precariously balanced next to JD inside the vehicle.  3.5 hours of bumpy roads, mildly homicidal drivers, potholes, police officers unabashedly asking for lunch money with AK-47s strapped to their backs, bipolar road pavement switching from dirt to asphalt and back, street vendors, and driving laws that seemed to be guidelines at best made for an excellent adventure.  By the end we had arrived at our new home in the Village of Abomosu.

Stephen Abu, our new host, welcomed us with open arms.  He is one of the kindest men any of us have met.  His wife will be in Accra with their son for some weeks but we will see her soon. We got settled in our rooms and started going to work.

We met Douglas, the program supervisor, and had him show us our roles.  He introduced us to some of the loan collectors which in turn introduced us to many of the past recipients of the program as well as those who currently have loans out and are paying them off.  This was a great experience as we were able to learn what many of the people here in Abomosu and the surrounding villages do for business.  The humidity is heavy, the sun is hot, and our feet and legs are sore by the end of each day but we look forward to expanding the program.  We have already seen the goals of the program reached in many of the lives of the people we have met and are excited to bring it to many more during our stay here.

Welcome Fall Interns

These week our Fall interns arrive in Ghana, here is a little bit about each of them....

Garrett Hansen

Senior- Finance with a Marketing minor

I was born and raised in Hyde Park, Utah.  I am currently I a senior at Utah State University, majoring in Finance and minoring in marketing.  In 2011 I was married to my beautiful wife, Zandra Hansen.  I enjoy playing music, singing, oil painting, mountain biking, skiing, riding my motorcycle, and spending time with my wife, family, and friends.

I wanted to participate in the SEED internship because I feel it offers a great opportunity to put to practice all I have learned while at USU.  I feel that this internship will truly be able to make a real impact in my life as well as in the lives of the people I will get to work with.

  

JD Borg

Senior – Finance and Economics

My name is Joseph Dale Borg, but all my life I have gone by JD. I always say I am from Richfield, Utah, but I am really from the small town of Sigurd just outside of Richfield. I am a senior at Utah State studying finance and economics with a goal of becoming an actuary when I graduate. I love Aggie athletics and the Utah Jazz, and I love to play racquetball and volleyball. I am also a member of the USU percussion ensemble.

            I wanted to participate in the SEED program because of my involvement in the Huntsman School of Business’ Go Global program. In preparation for our trip to South America, we read the book Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, which piqued my interest about microlending. I was excited about the small involvement of our program with the SEED program in Peru, and I jumped on the opportunity to travel to Ghana for a full internship.

Allan Follett

Senior – Finance with a MIS minor

Allan Follett is a transfer student from University of Texas in Arlington.  Currently he is a senior with his major being Finance with a minor in MIS.   In his spare time he plays EVE Online where he finds USU’s Finance program with its emphasis on economics give him an advantage over other players in the game.

Allan has always found the concept of microloans to be fascinating and the chance to see people in all phases of a microloan was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Beverly Jensen

Junior – Business Administration

My degree is in Business Administration and I am a Jr at Utah State University, Huntsman School of Business.  I am returning to school after raising most of my children, I am a mother of 8, 7 sons and 1 daughter.  I wanted to participate in the SEED program and go to Ghana because I have been a single mother in poverty in the US.  I was able to climb out and reestablish myself in the community with the help of my church, community and government.

I would like to give back, by teaching others about self-sufficiency.  I also want to better understand the basic concepts of the business principles that I have been taught in school, by seeing them in action.  I have owned several businesses and been in sales, including 6 years as a realtor.  I have enjoyed success and also learned from my failures.  My goal is to own my own successful business again, and I believe that my experiences with Wasatch Social Ventures will help me to obtain all of these goals.

Funding

Madison Johnson

The past couple weeks have been extremely busy for us. We spent hours writing each class member’s business plan. It was challenging to go over their financials since most of them don’t keep any kind of records. We submitted the applicants to WSV and then prepared all the loan agreements for funding. John and I funded our class from Akakom on Tuesday and Ross and Jamie (the other set of interns) funded their class in Sankub

enase on Friday. They both went very well. Douglas spent time going over the terms of the loan agreement and each individual’s payment schedule.  He was great at answering the questions they had. The class then formed two pods of five and elected a pod treasurer. The treasurer will gather the loan payments from each pod member at the first of each month. This makes the collector’s job easier as well as pressures the loan recipients to make their payments on time. In the villages that have a strong pod structure, we have an excellent collection rate. Once all the loan agreements were signed, we photographed each recipient, and then distributed the loans. It was a great experience and it was fun to see our class so excited. It was sad to say good bye to our class members. We hope they are successful in all their business endeavors.

John and I with the Akakom loan recipients. Douglas is pictured on the far left and Isaac (the collector for Akakom) is the tall one in the back.