Bro. Samuel Egwu is a committed member of The Apostolic Church Bonapriso, Douala where he serves in the main choir. He came to Cameroon in 2006 with his master a Nigerian Businessman. After serving him for two years, his master abruptly returned to Nigeria leaving Bro. Samuel to fend for himself.
He started off by getting small goods from others on credit, which he would sell and then pay his creditors. After 8 months, he was able to use the profit to rent a store and stock it with some goods. In May 2010, he took a loan of 1 million FCFA ($1818) from a bank to increase his stock. Unfortunately, a fire accident at the market burnt everything within that same month. The store’s landlord rebuilt the store. He struggled again by getting goods from whole sellers that trusted him. He would sell and pay them. From the profit, he was able to repay the loan from the bank. He got married on March 22, 2015 and funds amounting to 600,000 FCFA ($1090) received during the wedding were invested in the business. Unfortunately, another fire accidentally destroyed everything on the premises on Sunday April 12, 2015. He lost about 2.5 million FCFA ($4545). These chain of events left Bro Samuel in a desperate situation wherein he was relying on family and friends for basic needs and food.
On Sunday April 19, 2015 a free will support offering was done for them from all the five assemblies in the district amounting to 150 000 FCFA ($272) with which he could get some needs.
To re-establish the business, he needed 350 000 FCFA ($636) to rebuild and 200 000 FCFA ($363) to buy a bail of fabrics for a start making a total of 550 000 FCFA ($1000).
TACC-Friends assisted Bro. Samuel with 550,000 FCFA on June 20, 2015. 350, 000 FCFA was to be allocated to rebuild his Landlord’s store and use his rents to repay it to TACC-Friends, then use 200, 000 FCFA as a startup capital for his clothing business. Bro Samuel has already repaid the 350 000FCFA to TACC-friends and his business is now doing fine.
This case was presented by:
Elder EBUNE Philip EYONG
LO for TACC-Friends Littoral Region, Cameroon
