How the banking crisis forced a banker to become a cleaner, caterer and Bolt driver

If you were a banker or familiar with what happened in Ghana's financial sector when the sector clean-up happened in 2018, then you can relate to Jemima's plight when her bank collapsed.

13 years as a banker came to an abrupt end when Capital Bank, where Jemima Mensa worked to help take care of her family, was among the banks that were affected by the clean-up exercise.

Jemima recounted that even though her husband was very supportive, staying home without a job for four years was no joke.

She just could not take it anymore, she had to do something.

“It hasn’t been easy. For the past four years, I’ve been home without a job, and the challenges are more than words could explain for me, because for working for 13 years in the banking sector and all of a sudden, you come home with nothing, with kids and life must go on. How do I pick the pieces?"

She said that she had to resort to cleaning people’s houses, and also do their laundry on the blind side of her husband.

“I wasn’t working, so how do I pay my fees, and how do I finance the catering service? Today, my husband will know what I do when he goes to work because I felt that if I tell him that I’m going to clean somebody’s house to support the house, he wouldn’t encourage me to do that… so when my husband goes to work, I scarf my head and go from house to house to ask if people want to wash or clean.

“And then I’d go to corporate ladies in my area to ask and I’d do the laundry. Sometimes GH¢100, GH¢150. Other times, I got GH¢50 for the cleaning and all that so, I did it for a while without my husband knowing because I’d take my kids to school and come and do it,” she said.

With time, Jemima said, she took up the job of driving because of two principal things: the need to ensure her family does not go hungry and the fact that she could just get lucky with a job offer on one of her rides.

“Actually, taking the decision was not too difficult because the motivation here is that I have to feed my kids, and my family and take care of my dad. So, when you look around, that was the encouragement. When I took the decision two months ago, the main focus was to meet my daily economic needs, and then maybe, perhaps, God would permit my helper to sit in my car one day and get me the job that I’ve been looking for, but when I’m at home, who will notice me? Nobody,” she explained in a December 24, 2022 engagement.

Jemima also narrated how she got the announcement of her job loss.

“The whole thing started in 2017, on 14th August. I used to work at Capital Bank, and our license was revoked from there; we were now working for GCB as they had taken over our company. We worked for them for almost 8 months from August 2017 until they gave us an appointment letter on February 4, 2018," Jemima said in an exclusive interaction with GhanaWeb.

“So, we worked for them, and then along the line, we were employed by GCB in 2018. I was transferred to Circle, and I worked for them for roughly 9 months. After that, I was never confirmed, so it meant that after 6 months, my confirmation was extended for another 3 months,” she continued.

Jemima Mensa also explained that after a while, she got to work one day and got the shock of her life when her termination was handed over to her.

She added that although the letter did not state what reasons prompted the termination, she found out later that it had to do with her educational experience.

“Then, nothing happened, I went to work one day, and I was told to go home with a letter saying that they don’t need my services anymore. There was no reason on the termination letter but from the background; what I heard was that of you don’t have SS, 3 credits, as in English, Maths and Science, you are out.

“And some of us, we don’t even have the SS; we did matured entrance, so we went first. That was their policy and even if you have a Masters and you don’t have the English, Science and Maths – the 3 credits, you are out. It doesn’t matter how your higher level of education is. I was a teller and at the time, I was in school – I was in my second year at PUC.

“I can remember that day, how I felt because how do I feed my kids, the family, how was I going to tell my family and all that? I applied to various places, but nothing was happening… So, I registered my catering company, and with the help of friends and family… it took me two years to build and register the company,” she said.





SSD/BOG

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