Adeline Quarshie Meanders Through Storms To Own A Successful Microcredit Company

Ms Adeline Quarshie, Founder and Managing Director of Credence Micro-Credit

Accra, Ghana, July 29, 2020//-Having endured hardship (monetarily), Ms Adeline Quarshie thought there could be a better way to go through life.

Her late father had suffered the fate of banking processes, lost his financial destiny, and this plunged the entire family into hardship.

This painful experience motivated her daughter Ms Quarshie to set up a successful microcredit operating in Ghana’s competitive microcredit industry.

Stood against odds

 She stood against all these odds to build Credence Micro-Credit, the fastest growing microcredit company that harnesses innovation and technology to bring delight to its customers.

From a humble beginning, Credence Micro-Credit is becoming a household name in Ghana as it continues to provide bespoke microfinance products and services for the people of Ghana.

Her starting-up story is not different from the hundreds of entrepreneurs profiled by the African Eye Report but her ambition to provide hundreds of Ghanaians with microfinance products and services at an affordable interest rates is unique.

Ms Adeline Quarshie

Her customers are satisfied with her customer-centric products and services, they keep talking about her and more people get to know her brand. And, she is being rewarded with more customers.

The company is succeeding because Ms Quarshie continues to serve the needs of the people. Her customers are her most prized assets, thus providing them with quality and prompt products and services are her topmost priority.

She guided the way and did it with skill, style and high passion and dexterity. She had the right products and services and at the right time – which translated into high demand on a mass market scale.

But all that would have been worthless without her unique brand of commitment, high energy and sheer determination, and the zeal to change the microcredit industry in the country.

As a young indomitable entrepreneur, she never allowed the different headwinds to weigh her down. Ms Quarshie rather turned those challenges into golden opportunities.

 Speaking to African Eye Report in a rare interview, Ms Quarshie who is the Founder and Managing Director of Credence Micro-Credit, a legally registered indigenous micro lending institution licensed by Bank of Ghana under its Non -Banking Financial Institution Act NBFI, ACT 2008 (Act 774) to undertake micro credit services in the country, said she was determined to change the narratives.

Aim at transforming lives

She said: “Growing up, I told myself I could come out with more innovative and people-centred ways of turning the financial fortunes of individuals by helping them finance their ideas”.

Ms Quarshie added: “I know people, just like me, had dreams and ideas but no money to fund them, and I wanted to be that safe financial bridge people cross to their economic liberty”. This is the devoid that Credence Micro-Credit is here to fill, she stated.

She aims at seeing the financial lives of people transform with integrity and also stands for passion.

Ms Adeline Quarshie in meeting with her team

 Entrepreneurial traits

 Ms Quarshie who is a firm believer of entrepreneurship, said she honed the art of making money right from infancy as she used to follow her mother to some markets in the Eastern parts of Ghana to sell provisions and later clothes at that time.

She however admitted: “Being an entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. It often takes years of hard work, long hours, and no recognition to become successful”.

Gender issues, macroeconomic conditions, stress of having to make difficult decisions every day, the stress of leading people and dealing with people-centred problems, among others, Ms Quarshie emphasised.

Legacy she wants to leave behind as an entrepreneur

“As an entrepreneur, my greatest legacy to be left behind is that of a ‘GOOD NAME”.

I want to be the name that is behind the financial success of many. I won’t be the name behind the materialization of dreams, and I want to be the name behind the academic success of individuals, I want to be named behind the smiles and peaceful co-existence of families”.

Ms Adeline Quarshie at work

The very same inspiration that led to the starting of this business is the greatest legacy, the pretty but affable Ms Quarshie wants to leave behind.

She wants to be the name that challenges other young people /males and females to rise to the occasion and explore their chances and risks.

Passion for innovation and tech

 Human beings are getting more and more complicated, and the only way a business can stay alive and keep up to meet human needs is by being innovative enough.

“As for technology, I believe that today’s life has become more simplified due to the availability of technology. I believe that innovation and technology are twin towers. Innovation necessarily breads technological advancement, and technology automatically breeds innovation. It is the only way to survive both as people and institutions”, Ms Quarshie noted.

 Advice to the young African entrepreneurs

“Firstly, the world is built on dreams. Everything we are seeing today and will see tomorrow is the end product of people’s dreams”.

She continued: “African youngsters should dream, and when it does not seem to work, they should dream even more.

Most importantly, after they have dreamt, they should believe and learn to endure time, patience, and process, but of course, not without God”.

Ms Adeline Quarshie

I wouldn’t be here if not for God. I owe it all that I am and will be to God. He makes all things possible and beautiful”, she preached.

Build capacity

 We are concentrating on human capital development. Not just on our internal customers (staff) but on our external customers.

Running seminars, conferences, entrepreneurial skill development sessions to offer free business counselling for our customers to make the best decisions to help their businesses grow, according to her.

“It is in their success that we, as a company can be successful. So we as a company are not fast giving out loans, we are building entrepreneurs for future Africa”.

Desire to transform to a bank

Ms Quarshie wants to see Credence at the savings and loans level, which is tier one in the next three years,

“I have always had the desire to own a bank in the future, and I knew that I inevitably had to start from Credence, and I hope to rise through the ranks to become a bank”, she revealed.

Education

Ms Quarshie holds a Degree in Marketing from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and HND from Accra Technical University.

 She currently pursuing an EMBA programme at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) in Ghana. Ms Quarshie also had and other international certifications from MIT, YALE, Temple University and Howard all in (USA).

Work experience

Ms Quarshie has a long serving career in banking which spans beyond the borders and shores of Ghana. Her company has a branch in  South Africa.

Passionate tech advocate

She is a passionate advocate who believes in innovation and technology to advance development around the world by ensuring greater participation from young people. This is evidenced by the age demographics of her employees.

In an ever-dynamic world, the best people who are both very much in touch with the world and also creative enough are the young ones, hence, my greatest joy working with them.

Ms Adeline Quarshie and her team members

Her greatest philosophy in life is ‘FAITH’. “You have got to believe whatever you are doing regardless of how small and inattentive people are to you”.

And her favourite quote being-” No tree, however great, ever starts growing as a tree, all trees start to grow as a seed”.

With the meteoric rise of the microcredit industry after the turbulent financial sector reforms, most industry watchers say Credence Micro-Credit Company is one the companies to watch in the country.

Bottom line

People exposed to entrepreneurship frequently express that they have more opportunity to exercise creative freedoms, higher self esteem, and an overall greater sense of control over their own lives.

As a result, many experienced business people political leaders, economists, and educators believe that fostering a robust entrepreneurial culture will maximize individual and collective economic and social success on a local, national, and global scale.

To quote an American author and entrepreneur, Brian Koslow: “If you nurture your mind, body and spirit, your time will expand. You will gain a new perspective that will allow you to accomplish much more.”

This quotation best fits well with the humble and affable Ms Quarshie whose story can be told in several ways.

By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report

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