First Lady confers with Hunan Women Federation

The First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has met with the Hunan Women Federation, a group of women entrepreneurs in the Hunan Province of China, to explore how the federation and women entrepreneurs in Ghana can work together.

During the meeting, the Hunan Women Federation, made up of investors in the real estate, construction, hardware, energy generation and food processing sectors; manufacturers and entrepreneurs, had the opportunity to interact with their counterparts from Ghana who were among the First Lady’s entourage.

Mrs Akufo-Addo visited China with about 35 women entrepreneurs from Ghana who are into real estate business, manufacturing, agro-business, cosmetics and fashion.

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Business opportunities

Addressing the business entrepreneurs, the First Lady said: “As someone interested in the empowerment of women, I was more than happy to have on my delegation these great and successful women entrepreneurs from Ghana and even more excited to meet such successful women entrepreneurs in Hunan.”

She added: “You ladies show the way for our girls. If you have made it, then it gives our younger ones hope that they can also make it as entrepreneurs.”

Mrs Akufo-Addo said she was optimistic that the women from Ghana and China would develop strong business partnerships that would give birth to huge conglomerates across the globe.

She assured the women entrepreneurs from Hunan that Ghana was the place to invest, saying. “We have a stable democracy and are known as the beacon of peace in the West African region.”

She further assured them of a big market, because Ghana is an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member and, therefore, their goods and services had free access to the market of about 400 million people from all the member countries of ECOWAS.

Linking up

The Chief Executive Officer of Samba Foods, Mrs Leticia Osafo Addo, who was part of the First Lady’s entourage and the chairperson for the meeting, said most often, business meetings were among men but through the First Lady’s initiative, a team of businesswomen had been able to meet and link themselves up.

She noted that businesswomen in China had already had the exposure and, therefore, they as Ghanaian businesswomen were ready to partner with them to tap into their expertise.

She told them that there were a lot of business opportunities in Ghana and they should not allow only men to explore such opportunities, and urged women entrepreneurs to move out of their comfort zones and explore the opportunities in other countries.

Mrs Osafo Addo enumerated some of the areas that they could explore to include the agricultural sector, construction, oil and gas, trading and manufacturing, among others.

Members of the Hunan Women Federation took turns to thank the First Lady for the opportunity that she had given them, pointing out that through their interactions with their Ghanaian counterparts, they had been able to identify business opportunities and partnerships that they could take advantage of.

Writer's email-rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh