VisionFund President & CEO Michael Mithika Visits Ghana

Michael Mithika visits Ghana

Written by Raphael Ayitey, Marketing Coordinator, VisionFund Ghana

VisionFund International’s new President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Mithika recently visited Ghana to meet with key stakeholders, as well as the VisionFund Ghana team.

I had the opportunity to accompany him on a field trip to meet some of the communities that we work with. In Ghana, VisionFund operates across 127 districts in all 10 regions, currently serving over 29,000 clients, 86% of whom are women. Our work has positively improved the lives of over 72,000 children and helped to create 50,000 indirect jobs as of May 2018.

Michael met with clients at Adukrom, in the Eastern Region, where he was excited to hear that VisionFund Ghana has been working in the community for 17 years and to see first-hand how our work has delivered tangible impact. Michael met Mercy, who has been a baker for 30 years. She first took out a working capital loan of GHS150 ($33.33) from VisionFund Ghana in the year 2000. Through consistent funding support and advice, she has been able to expand her business and generate sufficient income to use some of her profits to purchase a plot of land to build a five bedroom house for her family.

Michael visiting VisionFund client Mercy at her bakery
Michael visiting VisionFund client Mercy at her bakery

 

Michael also visited Robert, a 59 year old small-scale farmer in Bala Gonor in the Greater Accra region. Due to the seasonal nature of agriculture, Robert added another stream of income to support his family.

He joined a World Vision facilitated savings group which allowed him to save and borrow at the end of the six month saving cycle. VisionFund Ghana has a Savings Group Loan product that lends money to the pool of informal savings groups which increases the amount of money available for lending to the group members.

As a member of the group, Robert used the money from two loan cycles totaling GHS 4,000.00 ($888.88) to purchase and install a corn mill to serve the community for a fee.

Robert’s corn mill
Robert’s corn mill

 

“I bought the corn mill and started this new business because the income from farming was not enough to support my family. I have started making a small income from this new business and it helps to pay my children’s school fees. My first daughter has completed senior high school while my second and third are still in basic school and doing well in their studies. My wife Doris has always been helpful with taking care of the children,” he says.

We also visited Victor, a 35 year old mushroom farmer, who started his farm about two years ago but had experienced financial difficulties trying to expand the farm. But that was before he heard about VisionFund’s Small and Growing Business loan which lends higher amounts of money to small successful businesses to help them expand. “I applied for this loan from VisionFund Ghana and was granted a GHS12,000.00 (US$2,500) loan which I invested into the business,” he said. Victor used the loan to purchase mushroom seedlings and expanded his farm from harvesting 7,000 mushroom bags to 101,000 bags during the farming season and employing three workers.

L: Mushrooms at Victor’s farm. R: Frank (COO), Kojo (VFG CEO), Victor, Mabel (SGB Manager) & Michael
L: Mushrooms at Victor’s farm.
R: Frank (COO), Kojo (VFG CEO), Victor, Mabel (SGB Manager) & Michael

 

Michael was optimistic about deepening the impact of VisionFund Ghana and emphasised the need to focus on accelerating impact by building technology-driven operations to reach the unbanked populations, especially in rural areas. I was especially moved to hear his encouraging words on how our work should provide tangible hope and support and fund the dreams of our clients, and help transform the lives of the most vulnerable.

I was inspired by Michael’s visit and I personally admire his levels of energy and interest during the field visits. Criss-crossing through communities, descending and climbing hills to access client’s businesses, taking the time to talk and get to know them all, in just one day, was very inspiring.

Michael and Head Office Team
Michael and Head Office Team