Ama has had two loans from lendwithcare, one in September 2011 and the other just recently in March 2013. She sells red palm oil which is commonly used for cooking. She told me you pour it on onions and beans then fry and add gari flour to make a sauce. It is also used to make soap. She buys oil from a producer in Palimé which is 95 kilometers away. She travels by taxi and it takes two days to get there and back. When she is travelling her daughter sells on her stall for her. She told me that business is good and she currently has lots of clients. I asked her about her profits - she sells 500 ml of oil for 500 cfa (about $1), 1.5 ml for 1500 cfa (about $3). She buys 12,000 litres for 27,000 cfa sell and resells it for 20,000 cfa giving her a profit of 7,000 cfa, 1,000 of which goes on taxis and porters. Ama has three children, two are independent and her youngest who is seventeen helps her out. Her first two children don't have kids as they can't afford to (it was interesting to hear that many people are putting off having children if they don’t think they can afford to bring them up). She said that the loans have helped her a lot, before she could only buy small stocks at a time and she couldn't get a good price and therefore her profit was small. Now she can make a much better profit. She even has some savings with our partner WAGES which makes her feel much more secure. She told me “If you keep your money at home it could be stolen or burned in a fire, also you can spend it more easily” Jokingly I told her that I liked to spend my money and she sternly told me I should save my money not spend it on bags! Ama told me that in the future she would like to have a shop instead of a small stall as this would enable her to store stock. At the moment she works with a stall and a parasol which is very perishable and she has to spend money on replacing it often. The one she was using when I visited looked like it was on its last legs.
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