
SUSU PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH, APRIL, 2016
Indeed, the Ghana Co-operative Susu Collectors Association has come a long way in offering convenient financial services to many Ghanaian households” this is wholly due to the good work done in the background by its loyal members. In a bid to honour such outstanding personalities’ Mr. Emmanuel Quarshie, is being profiled to share what has made his business successful and thriving all these while.
Mr. Emmanuel Quarshie, is one of the founding members of the Ghana Cooperative Susu Collectors Association (GCSCA). He was born on 22nd April 1946. According to him, he is the first born to his mother but the third born among 13 siblings on his father’s side. He hails from Akrofu-Hoviofe in the Volta region, where he started his elementary school. He completed his middle school education in 1971. During that same year, Emmanuel lost his dear mother.
Subsequently, he moved to Accra with a friend to seek greener pastures, when he got to Accra, he served as a porter, in and around the Kaneshie market, struggling to survive on his little earnings. Homeless at the time, Emmanuel resorted to sleeping at the shops of people at the end of a hard day’s work. He recounted how things were difficult for him when it rained at night.
One fateful day, while going about his daily routine, he met one Baba Tunde, a Susu collector who influenced him to serve as an apprentice in his Susu collection business. Baba Tunde operated around Russia, Mataheko, Kaneshie and its environs in those days. Whiles working with Baba Tunde, Emmanuel met one of his uncles, Rubben Quarshie-Aku who was working with Parks and Gardens at Mataheko who asked him to come leave with him.
Sometime in 1977, Emmanuel’s boss Baba Tunde travelled back to his hometown in Nigeria and left him in-charge of the Susu collection Business.