Meet James Bazzie: Data Entry Officer - Building Markets

Meet James Bazzie: Data Entry Officer

by Building Markets
May 3, 2012

One thing we’re keen to do on Building Markets’ country blogs is help you get to know the people behind each project’s success. We like to talk about success, but we also want to showcase the people who are directly responsible for it. With our newest project in Liberia ramping up, we’re taking the opportunity to do that right from the start. Every Monday and Thursday we will introduce you to a member of the team in Liberia through this blog. Read on for one profile below.

James Bazzie knows a lot of fun facts about Liberia. And Liberia is full of them. It is the first country in Africa to have a female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. It is the only country on the continent that has two currencies as legal tender. Liberia is also the oldest  independent republic on the African continent. And in James’s opinion, Liberia is full of the most friendly and hospitable people in the world.

James is the Sustainable Marketplace Initiative’s Business Verification Data Entry Officer. He takes the information compiled by the Verification Officers about local businesses, and he enters these into the business directory. He is one key to maintaining an accurate and up-to-date database of businesses.

James is not new to data. He previously worked for the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-information Services (LISGIS) as a Data Manager. He is an expert on collecting, compiling and analyzing data.

James thinks that the biggest strength of the Liberian marketplace is the agricultural sector. “Liberia has one of the most fertile soils, which allows almost anything to grow anywhere,” James says. “If these products can be processed and transformed into finished products then the local market will begin to compete with other international suppliers.”

James has a few words of advice for anyone traveling to Liberia. The first is to try his favorite dish, Bitter leaf. “I love it because it has a little bitter taste, which gives you a good appetite,” he says. The second is to be prepared to learn how to speak Liberian English because “we speak English that is hard to understand by other English-speaking people.”

Tags : Sustainable Marketplace Initiative

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