Success Story: Out-of-School Youth Realizes his Potential with Entrepreneurship Training
Mr. Philip Annin is 20-years old and lives in Suiano in the Juaboso District of Ghana. He is currently participating in the out-of-school youth training activities implemented by Winrock and was part of the piloting of a new cocoa livelihoods entrepreneurship curriculum. This is his story in his own words:
I completed Junior Secondary School and continued to Senior Secondary School but dropped out in form 2 [before ECHOES began]. This is because my parents did not have enough money for me to continue so I had to stop to make way for my older brother to complete his education. This made me stay in the house for two consecutive years and I finally lost interest in schooling completely. My parents later asked me if I wanted to do something else apart from schooling. I decided to do an apprenticeship. But once again, they could not provide the money for me to go.
I had to work on my father’s cocoa farm for one year and, at the end of the season, he gave me 300 Ghana cedis. In the first year [2007], I decided to sell agro-chemicals. The first batch of the stock sold very well and I went in for another batch, but this time the market was not good for me, so I had to sell them on credit. But almost all the debtors failed to pay and this affected my business greatly and all the capital I had got finished. I was discouraged and decided not to continue the business any longer. I decided to travel to Kumasi to look for some job. But fortunately, that was when Winrock International also came into the community and started the ECHOES Project and through their teachings on enterprise and agricultural development made us to understand what true business really meant. With the little knowledge that I gathered from the teaching, I realized that I had to restart my business with new ideas. This all happened around July 2008.
[Winrock International] came and took us through some of the things learnt during the training. They interviewed us concerning what we do for a living in the community and also asked for our future ambitions. I told them I want to be a very big businessman, but in the meantime I want to go back into the agro-chemicals. Fortunately [my parents] gave me 200 Ghana cedis. With this capital I took the first stock of chemicals. I decided not to play with the business anymore but to pay attention. Through the teachings, I learnt how to study the market situation in the community before I could go in for new or more stock, how to price the chemicals to be able to make a profit, how to keep proper records on the business, how to manage the capital and the little profit that I make. I realized that the business is my livelihood and I must cherish it as part of my life.
They also taught us how to save money and open an account at the bank. In fact, putting money in the bank was something I never wanted to do for fear that someone could easily run away with my money. But I got convinced and now I am a proud account holder at ADB [Agriculture Development Bank] with checkbooks. Through the savings that I made from the little profit that I get from the business, my stock has increased tremendously and I have now a store in the community to sell the chemicals in shelves instead of the table-top as had been the case previously.
The ECHOES Project and Winrock have really helped me. It has proven its benefits to me personally and I would like to encourage the organization to really continue with the good work in the teaching program and if possible, expand it throughout the world so that other people, especially the youth, can also get the opportunity and be encouraged to realize their potentials.
WCF thanks Winrock International for contributing this story.