On the Ground in Ghana – Board Member Trevor Franda visits Moree, Site of New Microfinance Program
May 19, 2024
Driving down the two-lane highway that connects Ghana’s capital city of Accra with the historic city of Cape Coast, Nana Obokese picks up the phone, put it down, and tells his driver to stop the car at the side of the road. He has just seen his mother’s car passing the other direction, and we pile out into the hot, humid West-African air to wait for their arrival. His mother and sister, dressed in all white clothing in celebration of Ramadan, step out of a yellow van clad with their cosmetic company’s “Chocho Industries” logo, happily greet us to make our acquaintance.
As we continue on the road, Nana again signals a stop at a roadside market with produce sent down from Niger. Fresh pineapple, cassava root, and yam stretch in all directions, and we grab a few pineapple for a snack later.
We approach Cape Coast, completing our roughly 3-hour drive from Accra, and see rows of the Ghanaian flag line the street with its green, red, and yellow stripes and black star centered in the middle, leftover from the festivities of “Ghana Month” in March, a celebration of national independence from British colonial rule as “Gold Coast”.
