Micro-credit scheme helps Ghanaian entrepreneurs out of poverty

During his visit he talked to many local business people — but the story was always the same — while successful in their own right, they were being held back from further expansion by a lack of capital funding and limited access to financial support. He learned that loan interest rates in the country are prohibitively high — mainstream banks offer annual rates of around 35 per cent, while private finance companies’ rates can be anything up to an astronomical 50 per cent a year.

The CEDIS scheme encourages Ghanaian entrepreneurs to draw up a business plan and uses capital from charitable fundraising to offer them loans of just two per cent per month over a six month period. Since its launch in October last year it has already helped more than 250 individuals and currently boasts a 100 per cent repayment rate.

Chris Skilton said: “There are literally millions of Ghanaians without access to legitimate financial services. With the support of the University and the SIFE team we have already been able to reach out to several hundred entrepreneurs. In the coming years we hope to offer thousands of individuals the same opportunities to develop their businesses and support their families.”

Chris has enlisted the help of the current University of Nottingham SIFE team to get the scheme up-and-running. Their role has involved assisting in the development of a social impact assessment scale to determine where the loans are most needed and the creation of a fully computerised database for managing the scheme.

Members of the team recently visited Northern Ghana to see the impact that CEDIS is already having on the lives of people living in one of the poorest regions in the world, with high levels of unemployment, an infant mortality rate of up to 25 per cent and a life expectancy of just 45 years.

They got the chance to meet people like Amma Yahaya Nabila, who runs a rice processing business and has had a loan of 100 Ghana CEDIS (around £50) and has used the return on her investment to give her children an education.

Speaking about CEDIS, she said: “To be honest, it has helped me a lot and I cannot thank them enough for their help. I am thanking them a lot as now my children are able to go back to school, within these recent days. It is from this profit margin that I got the help to support them to go to school.”

Vice-President of The University of Nottingham SIFE team Aaron Salamon, who has recently completely the first year of an economics degree at the University, was on the trip.

He said: “Every single day we met a different set of entrepreneurs. They were all living in very poor communities but they worked hard and were successful business people in their own right.

“These are very proud people — they are not interested in taking handouts or charity, they simply want the means to help themselves and just require a little extra help to allow them to reach their full potential.”

The scheme has benefitted from a £17,500 grant from the University’s annual development fund — £7,500 covered the cost of the trip to Ghana, while the students will use the remaining £10,000 to develop business ventures in the UK and Ghana. These businesses will allow CEDIS to expand its capital base and become more sustainable over time.

CEDIS has also joined forces with the organisation DEKI which through its website www.deki.org.uk offers people the chance to directly fund loans to specific borrowers in the developing world.

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is a global non-profit initiative and competition which encourages students to demonstrate their business acumen while creating economic opportunity for others. The University of Nottingham SIFE team has a long history of success, having lifted the UK title four years in a row from 2005 to 2008.

Chris Mahon, Director of the MBA in Entrepreneurship at the Nottingham University Business School and Faculty Advisor for SIFE Nottingham, said: “The CEDIS programme is a great example of what SIFE is all about. Our students have worked very hard to develop and grow this important initiative in Ghana, and they have used the skills they developed here at Nottingham to help other people transform their lives.”

— Ends —

Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 100 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings.

More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to RAE 2008, with almost 60 per cent of all research defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Research Fortnight analysis of RAE 2008 ranks the University 7th in the UK by research power. In 27 subject areas, the University features in the UK Top Ten, with 14 of those in the Top Five.

The University provides innovative and top quality teaching, undertakes world-changing research, and attracts talented staff and students from 150 nations. Described by The Times as Britain's “only truly global university”, it has invested continuously in award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. Twice since 2003 its research and teaching academics have won Nobel Prizes. The University has won the Queen's Award for Enterprise in both 2006 (International Trade) and 2007 (Innovation — School of Pharmacy), and was named ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year’ at the Times Higher Education Awards 2008.

Nottingham was designated as a Science City in 2005 in recognition of its rich scientific heritage, industrial base and role as a leading research centre. Nottingham has since embarked on a wide range of business, property, knowledge transfer and educational initiatives (www.science-city.co.uk) in order to build on its growing reputation as an international centre of scientific excellence. The University of Nottingham is a partner in Nottingham: the Science City.

Nottingham University Business School is one of the UK’s leading centres for management education. It ranked among the world’s leading business schools in the 2009 Financial Times Global Top 100 MBA and Global Masters in Management ranking, and The Economist Top 100 MBA 2009.
The School also ranks 1st in the UK, 3rd in Europe and 23rd globally in the Aspen Institute’s ‘Beyond Grey Pinstripes’ ranking of the world’s most innovative MBA programmes that lead the way in integrating social, environmental, and ethical issues into management education and research. The Business School has pioneered entrepreneurship teaching and research at Nottingham and the University won the 2008 Times Higher Education Entrepreneurial University of the Year award. It was recently granted the prestigious European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accreditation by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).