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LAPO Has Given My Business A Big Boost

Cecilia Farumen
Cecilia Farumen slipped into the dark wilderness of penury in 1992 when she lost her husband who was the sole breadwinner of the family.
After that painful incident, the full responsibility of fending for the family of three rested squarely on her shoulders.

In disillusionment and distress, Cecilia, born at Ogbona, a little town in Fugar, Edo State, would then sit at the corner of her room, which she managed to rent. Her major business was just to stare at the ceiling, worrying about how to make ends meet.

Her problems were multifarious. Although unemployed, financial responsibilities crowded around her, begging for attention. There was monthly rent to be paid; there must be food continually on the table; children must be trained to make them useful to themselves and the society in future; children must be clothed and medical bills must be settled. All these constituted a problem to her and there seemed to be no way out. ?This despicable situation would have been salvaged had she a viable means of livelihood,? she reasoned. But she was a full time housewife. She never went to school and never learnt any trade or productive skill to absorb her in the competitive labour market.

Worst still, her late husband left no income-yielding property or reasonable money behind for family upkeep. ?No landed property or moveable asset,? she cried, ?was left behind for the family to fall back upon.? Instead, he bequeathed a legacy of family problems, being a polygamist. He had three wives and a good number of children. Cecilia who was one of them only had three children by him.

It was this terrible condition of living and her endless search for resources to lay a solid foundation for the future well being of her children that combined to make her insomniac and inconsolable. What this poor widow suffered that time can better be imagined than experienced.

As a way of survival, Cecilia started to trade in petty food items although the profit was so marginal to make any significant improvement in the family's standard of living. To effectively turn her situation around, she needed adequate capital to expand her foodstuff business. What became an issue was where to source it.

It was during this period of distress that she became aware of LAPO and its financial services. Through old LAPO members, she made meticulous enquiries about the nature of loan, loan sizes, conditions and pattern of repayment. She was told also that unlike formal financial houses, no collateral was required and that little interest was needed to service the loan until when finally repaid. Convinced about the genuineness of it, she immediately got registered as a LAPO member in her area in Fugar, Jattu branch.

For the very first time since she became a widow, she felt the warmth of a close-knit business family whose help and encouragement contributed to lighten up the burden she had borne all alone for close to seven years.

Cecilia's first and second loans were Seven thousand naira (N7, 000) and Nineteen thousand naira (N19,000) respectively. She made sure that the total sum was usefully invested in her foodstuff market. From the profit made, she started to solve the family's enormous problems, beginning with the most crucial.

With time, she was able to raise fund for the training of two of her three children in handcraft: Her son was trained as a local motor mechanic while her daughter got trained as a beautician.

Cecilia did not stop at that but went a step further. She provided necessary equipment for the smooth take-off of her daughter's fashion business, thereby making her self-reliant. She equally managed to train the last child in school and supported the other boy to set up a motor mechanic workshop, after the successful completion of his training.

With the loans received from LAPO, Cecilia's foodstuff business has grown rapidly. She can now stock groundnut oil, beans, rice, palm oil, garri, yams and other essential commodities in large quantities.

She spoke thus ?I like my membership of LAPO. It has helped me a lot. My suffering and anguish have ended. I will appeal to Mr.Godwin Ehigiamusoe, the executive director of LAPO not to relent in his efforts because we need his continuous assistance to grow bigger and bigger. I am also grateful to all his staff and other LAPO women who encouraged me to join LAPO.?

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