Andrews, 39 years old, is a native of the village of Kengen (Amansuri wetland) where he lives with his wife and their three children. He owns and operates a small licensed drugstore, which is his exclusive business.

 

Though his intention is to move to a big city, where economic opportunities are more ample, he says he wants to stay in Kengen if he can manage to realize his dream for a micro-enterprise: he wants to open a wholesale drugstore point, where small dealers will come and purchase in order to sell in retail. 

 

According to Andrews, the capital required to set up the wholesale drugstore amounts to about 600 GHC (300 €). So far he has participated to two loan cycles in the context of the Microsfere project, and in the 2nd cycle he received a loan of 250 GHC (125 €). 

 

He used this money to buy medicine at large quantities, which allowed him to negotiate better prices with the providers. Before joining the Microsfere project he never had sufficient amounts of cash, and was forced to make purchases in small quantities, with higher prices. 

 

In terms of the Microsfere project’s impacts on the natural resources, Andrews says that there is a decrease in improper natural resource use, but claims that there are margins for improvement, since people still occasionally cut raffia sticks from the wetland for construction purposes, and do also eat sea turtle eggs when they stumble across a nest on the beach.