As part of efforts to promote female-led agribusiness in the Upper West Region, Plan International, Ghana with support from the Australian High Commission has equipped eight women-led businesses in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region to expand their ventures.
The enterprises which included Poyaare Naturals, Resource Farms, Kobaa-Ok Farms, Sung Pumpkin, Miga Glow, Royal-Avielle Honey, Inspired Legacy and Influx and Spill Products were given support in the form of resources, skills training and mentorship to help enhance their capacity to expand their businesses.
Under the GH¢256,336 project christened Female-Led Agribusiness Project (FLAP), the women received logistics such as tricycles,
for deliveries, technical expertise for branding and marketing, among other services.
The Project Lead for FLAP, Ms Harriet Elorm Setsoafia, who stated this at an event to mark the closure of the project at Wa on Thursday, mentioned that the motive of the project was to empower young female-led businesses with entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, resources and network to improve and scale up their ventures.
She explained that the Australian High Commission supported the project with GH¢220,102 for mentorship and provision of resources and Plan Ghana, the project implementer provided the remaining GH¢66,128 for capacity building and training of beneficiaries.
The project, she stated was borne out of an interaction with females in the agribusiness space in the region on the challenges they were faced with and the type of assistance needed for growth.
“Based on continuous interaction with beneficiaries, we were able to identify their shortcomings from where to build their capacity and that included proposal writing, developing realistic business ideas, and receiving technical support and mentorship for the businesses,” Ms Setsoafia said.
For her part, the Second Secretary and Consul at the Australian High Commission in Ghana, Ms Harriet Williams, who visited the ventures of some of the beneficiaries earlier, expressed satisfaction with the results and said it would enhance the quest for women empowerment.
She stated that globally, women constituted 43 per cent of the labour force in agriculture but were discriminated against in terms of access farm inputs and credit facilities, ownership over land and livestock as well as inclusion in decision making about their vocation.
‘It is heartwarming to note that through the project, young women have received relevant entrepreneurial skills to make them more independent and capable to participate in the local economy and to also support their families, ” she said and expressed confidence in the sustainability of the businesses supported given their respective achievements so far.
The Northern Sector Manager for Plan International, Ghana, Mr Eric Ayaba, said dedicating resources to empower young women promoted development and called for more of such efforts in that regard, particularly for women in small scale businesses.
“One area that can move the country forward in a very massive way is that issues of local businesses are supported at their level since small scale businesses, particularly those led by women have difficulty accessing finance, logistics and technical support if they are not decentralised, ” he said.
He admonished small scale business owners to aim for growth to medium scale in order to increase their capacity, enhance income generation and widen their contribution to the nation’s economy.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
