Microloan Fuels Peanut Supplying Business in Pandemic

Omaima, a former beautician lost all her clients due to social distancing: a key requirement that helped curb the spread of the virus. Using her third and fourth cycle loans, she stocked more groundnut from the local farmers; firmly establishing herself as one of the many women in Tepa, Ghana, who supplied to the local peanut oil factory with their well-prepared nuts.

“I couldn’t sit on the fence - either I did something, or my children ended up like me, she revealed in an interview.

Omaima shows us her groundnut roller: a locally manufactured cylinder used to heat the raw groundnut in the first stage of the peanut oil process. This soot-concentrated roller became her surviving tool in May 2020 when the continuous lockdown in Ghana rendered her jobless.

Ryan Mohammed and his sister cheers their mother on as she winnows the chuff from the groundnut. This is the second stage of the peanut oil process.

Omaima has not turned her back to her former occupation despite the ease on restrictions. “Through my engagement with VisionFund Ghana, I have not only found a more suitable occupation, the occupation has also become a family business,” she added. Unlike her former occupation, which fetched her very little revenue, Omaima revealed that through the groundnut business, she has been able to support her husband to purchase a land. Her children are always ready to support.

Omaima had made up her mind to purchase a bigger groundnut roller to expand her business. “I have just started, if I knew this a long time ago, I would’ve become the main supplier of raw groundnuts to the peanut oil factory at Kumasi,” she says.

Story and photos by Abban Enoch Johnson - VisionFund Ghana