Maripiah Kangba is 55 years old with 10 children, aged between 7 to 35 years. She lives with her family in Jacob Town in Monrovia city, Liberia. She currently sells crockeries and other accessories in Paynesville city.
Her journey began 12 years ago with just a wheelbarrow selling goods on the road side in one of the most populated areas known as Water Side.
“Sometimes I used to walk road-to-road selling goods in the wheelbarrow. My daily profit was approximately LRD 200 (USD 1) – LRD 300 (USD 1.5). It wasn’t sufficient to maintain my family expenditure,” she says. She had limited resources and received hand-outs from her relatives. However, she still aspired to open a small shop and change her financial status.
In 2001, she spoke to a Credit Officer from BRAC Liberia and took LRD 150,000 (USD 754) as her first loan. From then onwards, there was no looking back for her. Over the years, she received multiple loans from BRAC Liberia Microfinance programme which helped her establish and expand her dream business. She is now a trusted client, who has taken up LRD 600,000 (USD 3,015) as loans.
“BRAC’s Microfinance programme has made significant improvements in my life,” she says. “I now have my own house, which I built on my own land, and 3 of my children are currently attending good schools. I am a proud owner of one of the biggest shops in the area and I could not have achieved any of this without BRAC Liberia’s help,” she adds.
Maripiah plans on continuing to be a regular client of BRAC Microfinance and hopes that each of her sons will one day run their own separate stores.
