Springboard Road Show Foundation

Adelaide Akosua Kumi

Intervention: CoRe

My attitude and outlook on life reshaped. 

Adelaide had to fend for herself after senior high school. She moved on from one job to the other when COVID -19 set in and affected her livelihood. It was quite a challenge for her until a friend introduced her to the CoRe mentoring programme. She shared her story of how the programme has changed her mind set about life and business.

My name is Adelaide Akosua Kumi, a young woman of 22 years. I come from Kwawu-Abetifi but reside at Odorkor. I was a member of the agribusiness mentoring group.  After completing Senior High School in 2018, I moved to Accra to stay with my mom to explore economic opportunities. MTN employed me to register mobile money SIM cards for a month, then I became a salesgirl in a shop at Dansoman. A couple of months into this role, I became jobless as COVID-19 had set in and the restrictions on movements and businesses affected my employer. I could no longer go to work, and this affected my finances, because I had no other means of survival.

I don’t know how I would have coped if not for the timely intervention of the CoRe programme which my friend Samuel Skylove introduced to me. his has re-shaped my outlook and attitude about my life and business.

I had the opportunity to go through E-learning topics such as how to identify and monetise my talents and how to do business in the new normal. I also learnt about time management, raising money for a business, and marketing one’s products and services. I also joined very insightful sessions on how to plan and start a business. I realised that COVID-19 should not be a barrier to my success. I then decided to start a business of my own, and mobile money came into mind because of the experience I got from working for MTN. I had GH¢700.00 by then, so I used GH¢300.00 to register the business and used GH¢400.00 as my working capital.

While pursuing my mobile money business, I was still looking for employment to help me raise more money to invest into the business. Fortunately, I met a woman whom I have since taken to be my godmother. She ran an online wallpaper business and asked me if I could do the job. I told her to try me. Remembering my lessons about doing business in the new normal and doing business with your talent, I knew that this was the time for me to practice what I was taught. I still work there to date, and with time management, I’m operating my mobile money business on the side.

Thanks so much to the CoRe programme. I hope this intervention continues, as a lot of people out there need it, just like I did. I intend to share the knowledge I gained with my friends and people that I encounter in my life.