Beatrice

Loan description:

Beatrice Kossi-atta is 44 years old and married with three children aged 24, 20 and 13 respectively. Her husband is a farmer. She considers herself to be very motivated and enterprising. She manages a restaurant in an area called Kodjoviakopé, which is to the west of the Togolese capital of Lome, near the border with Ghana. Her restaurant has a varied menu, but specialises in rice dishes and 'fufu yam' which is mashed cassava and is served as an accompaniment to meat or vegetable stews. She has been operating this business for about ten years now and it has grown to employ 16 people who she supervises each day as they prepare and cook the food, keep the restaurant clean and also serve customers. Her restaurant is particularly popular at lunchtimes. She gets most of her supplies at the Grand Market in Lomé, or the Atikpodji market. However, when she buys meat she usually visits the Gbossimé market. She has been a customer of the microfinance organisation WAGES for about two years. Initially she opened a savings account. She received and repaid her first loan of 1 million West African francs soon after. She has now sought a second loan from the same institution to purchase more supplies, including maize, rice, boxes of tomatoes, spices, and cassava. She will also purchase meat particularly goat meat, chickens, and fish. She intends to repay the loan over 12 months. Beatrice's ambition is to open a second restaurant in the future.