42year old coconut seller, Kwao Issah sleeps on the streets of Accra while struggling to survive.
The energetic man who comes from Gomoa Kwayako in the Central region of Ghana has been selling coconut for the past eighteen years as his only means of survival.
According to him, he did not get the opportunity to further his junior high school education because his deceased father did not support him and his siblings financially through school. “My father used to work at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra but he did not take any of his six children to school. He used to involve us in farming activities which was very productive but he never gave us money for school when he sells his farm produce”. Issah said.
He said he began to sell coconut together with his elder brother to cater for their education till he wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination, BECE. Issah said the coconut business was not lucrative enough so he could not continue his education.
A hopeful Issah said even though the business is not flourishing, he prays and hopes that God will pave a way for him. “I do not have capital for the business so I am not able to get much coconut to sell. I get the coconut on credit, sell them and pay the money back to the supplier”.
He claims that because his profit is not enough to rent a place in Accra, he sleeps on the streets of Mallam junction in Accra whenever he comes to sell. “I come from Gomoa to sell in Accra. I mostly spend a month or two to sell one trip of coconut, so I sleep on the streets in the evening because I cannot go back to Gomoa and come back the next day. When it rains, I stand on my feet till it stops raining so I can get a place to lay my head”. He told crimecheckghana.
Kwao Issah said he wishes to get startup capital so he can buy the coconut in larger quantities.
A donor of Crime Check Foundation, Pentecost Life Ministry in the U.K, Nottingham branch has donated an amount five hundred Ghana cedis to Issah as startup for his coconut business.
Issah showed appreciation to the donor. “God richly bless them and exalt their businesses so that they can always help the needy”.
