The decision of a 13- year- old boy to chose plucking and selling of fresh coconuts to fend for himself did not only shock some residents of his neighborhood, but exposed the negligence of some parents.
Malik Aidoo is a form two Junior High School pupil at Amuzu, near Obom in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
For the past two years, he has been engaging in the sale of fresh coconuts to raise funds to support his education.
He disclosed that his parents are in the Central Region, but he is currently staying with some family members.
Malik, despite his age, has an advantage over his competitors. He is a crafty coconut tree climber. While his senior competitors struggle to find someone to pluck the coconut for them, Malik will be on top of coconut trees doing his own thing.
According to him, he makes GHC70.00 on good days and GHC40.00 on days when business is slow.
To ensure he conducts his business successfully, he has bought a wheel barrow he uses to cart the coconuts.
On weekends, he wakes up early in the morning to go out and find harvestable coconuts and negotiate with owners.
After that, Malik will climb the coconut tree with a rope and cutlass to enable him cut the fruits. While on top of the coconut tree, the 13-year-old boy will move round to pluck some of the coconuts, cut them open and taste to see if they are matured.
Soon after that, he will use the long rope to tie it and cut it and slowly release the rope till the bunch falls down .
In some cases he plucks 3 bunches from a coconut tree. So the owners will count the coconuts and sell them at GH2.00 per coconut to him. He in turn will retail them at GHC3.00 to customers.
The young passionate coconut seller says he will pursue a course in business when he enters Senior High School to enable him do good coconut business in the future.
