Tag Archives: Ghana

Goat Ranch in Ghana Aims to Start an Industry

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[guest name="Henry Adobor" biography="Henry Adobor teaches corporate strategy, ethics and leadership at the School of Business, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Connecticut. His background is in retail and human resource management. His business interests in Ghana include a small IT center in Accra and a large-scale aquaculture project. He lives in Cheshire, Connecticut."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Henry Adobor

Henry Adobor

You may not believe it, but goat farming is my passion. It connects me to my childhood during which my mother kept a few goats (as do most people throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.)

What I am trying to do with Aceritas Ghana Ltd. – the company I have started – is turning the passion into a commercial enterprise. The company will own and manage Green Acres Goat Ranch. Beginning with 100 goats, this commercial goat farm will use improved breed stock imported from South Africa and modern husbandry methods to produce the animals for meat and breeding. This will be a huge improvement over traditional small-scale livestock farming, which is inefficient and unsustainable in the long run.

But my goal is far from pushing small farmers out of competition. With a small laboratory and education center, the ranch also will work as a platform for sharing knowledge with local farmers to help them upgrade breeding and farming methods and grow. Aceritas is forming an alliance with a local university to promote research on goats, particularly on the new breed. My hope is that this project becomes the nucleus of an emerging industry. I plan to entice others to form a Commercial Goat Breeders Association to lay industry’s foundation.

The Accra Plains where goats soon will roam.

The Accra Plains where goats will roam soon.

My partner in Ghana -Stephen Adrah who owns several companies and farms – will manage Aceritas operations.

Because the market for goat meat is huge in Ghana, the initial focus is on selling the animals to large buyers, brokers and individuals directly from the ranch. Breed stock will be sold to farmers. Thinking ahead, Aceritas also will prepare for farming milk goats and selling goat milk in the future.

The ADM grant has come handy. It will help to defray the cost of importing the breed stock (that is substantial because the animals will be air-freighted, no first class please!) and building housing for goats.

Grand Aspirations for MicroClinics in Ghana

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[guest name="Kojo B. Taylor" biography="Kojo B. Taylor is an entrepreneur who expanded a franchised information technology company into a 13-unit chain in 12 cities across the country. He later sold the company to a division of IDG, the publisher of “Books for Dummies” series. He lives in Minnesota. "]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Kojo B. Taylor

Kojo B. Taylor

As my background is in franchising, I thought of leveraging my related knowledge to improve the public health system in Ghana. In the country the greatest need for basic health care services is in urban fringes and rural areas where such services are either scarce or unaffordable. Yet, there are nurses and medical assistants who potentially could provide accessible care in those areas. Three years ago, I started a company – MicroClinic International – that creates conditions for nurses to own and operate their own clinics. We assembled a team with the aim to create a network of community micro-clinics and recruit medical personnel to run them as franchisees.

A model micro-clinic is almost ready.

A model micro-clinic is almost ready.

The clinics are 1,100-square-feet buildings with small labs and living quarters for franchisees. We provide business training, oversight, accounting services, a management information system and manage the brand. We also provide quality control and sources for supplies including the drugs that meet intellectual property protection criteria.

But what might be most important for many is our help in getting loans for franchisees from venture funds and other sources in the United States and other capital markets. A nurse earning on average $100-$200 a month can hardly afford building a $25,000 facility. Our projections show that a successful franchisee will start making profits in less than two years, thus gaining ability to repay the loan.

With two prototype clinics already opened, and two others under construction, our goal is to expand the chain to 150 clinics in seven years.

The grant money we just won will help us fund a demonstration project and develop a billing system for third party payment.

We are aware that even relatively cheap medical services can be beyond the reach of those who live on $1 a day. That’s why from the beginning, our strategy was to have in place a third-party-payment arrangement with the national health insurance plan. A partnership we have formed with that plan will not only allow the poorest of the poor to gain access to essential health services, but also may change the way health care is delivered in Ghana. We hope it will create more opportunities for entrepreneurial private-sector providers. Private-public partnerships for healthcare in developing countries are an imperative in my view.

Can Ghanaian Pineapples Generate Jobs and Services?

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[guest name="Phoenix Maat and Michael Ducker" biography="Phoenix Maat oversees U.S. operations of Sardis Enterprises International Inc., a Ghanaian-American company, from her office in Denver. Michael Ducker is a market development specialist employed by J.E. Austin Associates, a business consultancy firm that focuses on helping developing economies."]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

PHOENIX MATT, entrepreneur:

Pineapple processing.

Pineapple processing.

Sardis Enterprises International Inc. exports Ashanti Gold and White Pineapples from Ghana to America. Our vision entails expanding our pineapple exports from Ghana as well as our social services to the people of Ghana. We aim to create employment and educational opportunities, with special attention to health and nutrition. We want to build business partnerships with the Ghanaian people, treating them not just as workers, but also as export partners.
Sardis Enterprises was founded and is run by Americans and Africans. It is unique in its work of salvaging crops for export. (We try to make sure no pineapples go to waste, unlike some operations.)

Sardis Enterprises’ humanitarian efforts also distinguish it from other companies that export from Africa but do little for its workers or environment. We maintain a culture of participation and inclusion as we work to raise prosperity, education and agricultural productivity in Ghana.

Sardis Enterprises welcomes guidance and partnerships with donors and regional African organizations. An American agriculture exporting company would be a great consulting resource for us as well. We are interested in learning efficient international export channels and in adopting better IT systems.

MICHAEL DUCKER, business expert:

Sardis seems to have an advantage over several other fruit exporters.

Ms. Maat’s blog entry makes me believe that Sardis is an integrated enterprise that manages everything from the pineapple farm to selling directly to U.S. wholesalers and super markets. This allows it to change quickly to market needs.

Sardis also has a US presence, meaning that it should have direct access to the market. This provides more opportunities to promote the Sardis enterprise and an advantage in gathering information about the U.S. market.

By incorporating good employment and environmental practices, Sardis also has created a branding opportunity, which could lead to higher prices. I would suggest that Sardis focus its selling and marketing on socially conscious consumers and the higher value retail chains that serve these consumers. I would work with the retailers to get prominent shelf space for the pineapples accompanied by point-of-sale displays with a socially conscious slogan, such as “the best pineapples for you and the earth from Ghana.” The displays could carry pictures of happy employees and logos of environmental standards that Sardis might adhere to.

I don’t know Sardis’ cost structure but my feeling is that Sardis would be better served to stay away from commodity-type distribution chains, which are managed by the larger super markets. The commodity-type distribution chains will not bring Sardis the price it deserves.

Idea of Student Cards in Ghana is 'Loaded' with Possibilities

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[guest name="Tenu Awoonor, Herman Nyamunga and Imran Qidwai" biography="Entrepreneur Tenu Awoonor is from Ghana and lives in New York. He is an assistant vice president at the financial firm Merrill Lynch. Expert Herman Nyamunga is an independent development consultant and a blogger. Expert Imran Qidwai is president of Zaviah, a high-tech consultancy firm in Boston."]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

TENU AWOONOR, entrepreneur:

Tenu Awoonor

Tenu Awoonor

Khary Robinson and I met at the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania. Talking about our respective native countries – Jamaica in case of Khary and Ghana in my case – we came upon the idea of a system of cashless transactions related to education expenses. The concept is simple but has a great potential. Our proprietary system is based on a card, similar to debit card, that can be pre-loaded by parents, or someone else, with a specific amount of money and used by students for purchase of school supplies, books, food and other education-related items or services. The system is secure, and the card allows parents to set daily spending limits and track their children’s expenses.

Student Card Limited's product is already in use in Jamaica

Student Card Limited's product in use in Jamaica

In Jamaica, where Student Card Limited went first in 2007, we have entered into several partnerships, which also allow students to save and parents or relatives to re-load student cards from overseas.

The market in Ghana is similar. We have already talked to local schools and vendors. The big scoop for us would be to partner with the government on a nationwide school feeding program. The use of our system would enable monitoring of the expenses related to the program, thus making it more effective and accountable.

HERMAN NYAMUNGA, business expert:

Money management for parents, especially with regard to educational expenses, is a big challenge. This business provides a much-needed solution in that it will make it easy for parents to specifically allocate money for school supplies and track expenses without any problem. It also addresses the problem of theft, because it is safe to carry.
Such a card system makes it easy for other people who are interested in the students’ academic life to safely load their cards.

Generally, it is a concept which I think will greatly improve learning in that country and also help interested parties understand how much is spent on educational supplies.

Despite all these merits, this business has potential challenges. Firstly, you need uniform vendors across the country that will be willing to accept the card in exchange for goods. Secondly, there will be issues related to verification, especially in remote locations. For example, what happens if someone loses his or her card and he or she is in such a location? Thirdly, I see a problem with manageability – will the amount put in the cards be worth the processing cost incurred, considering the fact that many people in Africa make piecemeal purchases.

IMRAN QIDWAI, business expert:

It is terrific to provide such a convenient alternative in societies that still mostly deal in cash. It is great to see you focus on a specific market segment where your solution provides obvious benefits to parents and children. It appears that some of your features, such as pre-loading, topping up and daily limits, also start to teach fiscal discipline at an early age.

I presume that the system can be expanded to include scholarships from known or anonymous donors in the affluent countries, people who may want to help less privileged but eager students?

IT Services Look for Better Grades in Ghana

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[guest name="Kobbina Awuah, Herman Nyamunga and Imran Qidwai" biography="Kobbina Awuah is from Ghana and lives in Ithaca, New York. He recently earned a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering at Cornell University and works at the energy company ConocoPhillips. Responding to his idea are Herman Nyamunga, an independent development consultant and blogger who lives in Philadelphia, and Imran Qidwai, president of Zaviah, a high tech consultancy based in Boston."]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

KOBBINA AWUAH, entrepreneur:

Kobbina Awuah, with student

Kobbina Awuah, in yellow shirt, works with a student.

The local primary school student (pictured with me) was one of the first visitors to a computer center I helped to establish for a non-governmental project in Bimbila, Ghana. Like most African youth, he possessed an eagerness to use the facility. It was one more proof that my business venture – Peak INFOTEK, a publishing and IT firm – is badly needed. My company aims to establish state-of-the-art computer labs and learning centers for faculty and students at Ghanaian universities. The labs and centers will be equipped with PCs connected to the Internet, educational software programs, printers and copiers. Registered users will be able to use some services via a dedicated website in their homes or dorms.

In 2007, while conducting research at Ghanaian universities on IT services, I realized that they have been lagging. The universities lack computer centers with Internet access, and students frequently have to wait in long lines to have access to copiers and printers, which are often located in the open.

I have put together a strong management team in Ghana. They have since conducted extensive market studies, which have enabled Peak INFOTEK to develop several innovative solutions. We will be launching our first IT facility in Kumasi in February 2010.

HERMAN NYAMUNGA, business expert:

In Ghana, students often wait in long lines to use copier machines.

In Ghana, students wait in long lines to use copiers.

This is a good business venture with potential to improve learning through exchange of ideas, research, and increased communication. Students will be able to access external resources to help in research and other academic projects. Most students in Africa lag behind in studies due to lack of access to quality learning resources. This facility will help to ease that problem. It will provide the students with unlimited Internet access for research and allow them to print and present their class work. Faxes will facilitate faster transmission of documents. Copiers, which are critical at African universities, will increase access to textbooks whose numbers are limited.

Universities could also use Peak InfoTek computer centers to offer online classes to reduce classroom congestion.

The challenges I see with this business model include the issue of affordability: are there enough people who can afford the venture’s services to generate a profit? Another challenge is that many students in Africa are not computer literate, so in order to increase access, you must deal with that problem too.

IMRAN QIDWAI, business expert:

As we all know, the Internet has significantly changed human lives in the past 15 years. However, it is unfortunate that large numbers of people in the developing world still lack access to computers. Anything that can help speed up and ease the access to computing resources will be phenomenal in helping the university students reach their potential.

One key to long-term success will be to make these centers sustainable, with locals trained to maintain the systems in fully operational optimum conditions. The long-term strategy should also include plans to take similar computer access and education to primary and secondary schools, so that children can start learning computer skills earlier to take advantage of the wealth of information available on the Internet.

Faith in Institutions

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“Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions,” President Obama said in a speech earlier this month in Ghana. Countries need strong, independent police forces, judiciaries and press among others, Obama said.

A Gallup poll taken in June examines Americans’ faith in the institutions that make up its democratic society.

At the top of the list is the military, which 82 percent of Americans say they have confidence in. Other institutions Americans have great confidence in include small businesses and the police. About half of Americans have strong faith in the presidency.  At the bottom of the list? Congress and big businesses.

What institutions in your country do you have confidence in? And which ones need strengthening?

President Obama and Democracy: Where and What Next?

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President Obama delivers a speech in Ghana.I like when President Obama talks about democracy, good governance, and civil society.   His June speech in Cairo, Egypt and this past weekend’s speech in Accra, Ghana have both brought attention to subjects that are important to us here at By the People.  Of course, I really like it when anyone talks about these issues, but when President Obama speaks there tends to be a lot of excitement built up around the event.   First there’s the anticipation and the predictions: What is he going to say? What action is he going to propose?  Then afterwards there’s the analysis:  What did people think about his statement?  What does it all mean? 

Now that the president’s Ghana speech has come and gone, I wonder where in the world he’ll go next.  Will he take the opportunity to talk about democracy yet again?  The answer is anybody’s guess, and I’ll definitely be tuning in to find out.

Where do you think President Obama should go next and what should he speak about?

Reactions to Obama’s Visit

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[guest name="Karen Attiah" title="Fulbright Scholar" biography="Karen Attiah is a recent graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in Communication Studies. As a current 2008-2009 Fulbright Scholar, she is investigating the impact of phone-in radio upon citizen political and social engagement in Ghana. In her free time, she enjoys making music on her computer and reading."]

Fulbright Scholar Karen Attiah, currently living in Ghana, shares her story of the nation’s thoughts about President Obama’s July 11 speech before Ghana’s parliament:

This visit of a Western leader to Ghana was like no other. Days before the wheels of Air Force One touched down at Kotoka International Airport on the night of Friday, July 10, Ghanaian people were using the radio airwaves to appeal to other Ghanaians to look at Obama’s visit through a new perspective. Caller after caller on Joy Fm’s Super Morning Show on Thursday urged Ghanaians not to look at President Obama’s visit as an opportunity to beg for aid from the United States, but rather as a moment of historical significance and national pride. I think that Ghanaians were looking to what Obama had to say, not what he had to give.

One part of Obama’s speech really inspired a lot of Ghanaians I know:

“And I am particularly speaking to the young people all across Africa and right here in Ghana. In places like Ghana, young people make up over half of the population.

And here is what you must know: The world will be what you make of it. You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people. You can serve in your communities, and harness your energy and education to create new wealth and build new connections to the world. You can conquer disease, and end conflicts, and make change from the bottom up. You can do that. Yes you can”

Here were some reactions I got:

Akordy, Accra: “His speech was tough love”

Samuel: “Thankfully it was not an ego massage. It was a very blunt appraisal of what Ghanaians know to be our bane, especially the corruption, tribalism, drugs, and dependence on aid. Bottom line, [our] destiny is in [our] hands. But Obama is younger than most of the politicians in the hall, so so much for his call for youth empowerment!”

And the most interesting reaction I heard was from a radio station presenter in Accra named Alhassan:

“I think that just as the USA seems to be leading the West, President Obama reminded us Ghanaians of our rich history to challenge our/my generation to step up and lead and also inspire Africa. Like we have done before when Dr. Nkrumah and his generation inspired Rev. Martin Luther King and other blacks across the world and Africa when Ghana became the first to lower the Union Jack for our native flag. I feel challenged, Karen! He believes we can, and we can! Ghana can be to Africa what America is to the West and the world. Amen!”

African Online Communities Buzzing About Ghana Visit, Part III

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Following President Obama’s speech in Ghana, bloggers in Africa had a lot to say about it.

Ato Kwamena Dadzie says “It was a brilliant and sensible speech in which [Obama] essentially told African leaders to wise up and stop the stupid things that hold us back. I hope they listened.”

Gameli Adzaho says the speech is an indication that relations between Africa and the United States will strengthen in the years to come. “What the continent’s leaders need to do is to strategically churn out homegrown solutions to the continents problems and take full advantage of programs put forth by the Obama leadership.”

Mac-Jordan says Obama’s visit to Ghana, “the first country in Africa, south of the Sahara to win an independence from the colonial masters is a great tribute to freedom fighters all over the world.”

Sarpong Obed, got a bit frustrated by all the road closures in Accra while President Obama was in town. As one who has grown up in Washington, D.C. and is used to traffic jams caused by political officials’ travels, I can relate.

Obed paid close attention to Obama’s statement to young people and how they control the future. “For me, we’re all too good at saying that the youth are the future leaders of this country. Without doing much to help realise this great statement, it’s almost useless to mention this. Barack has seen it and he’s a great man. We the youth have on several occasions demonstrated that we can make things happen for us by any means necessary.”