Women in agribusiness lauded for innovative roles

Women entrepreneurs have been lauded for the role they play in innovation in the agribusiness in ending hunger in the country.

“Women innovation in agribusinesses affects our homes, society and economy as a whole.

“The importance of women in the value chain of gari production cannot be under-estimated.

Women who form the bulk of our population, especially in our rural economy, are into this agribusiness,” he said.

The Board Chairman of the Microfiance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Dr Seth Adjei-Baah, said at the launch of this year’s Ehi Nutome Galiza in Accra.

The Ehi Nutome Galiza, which is a gari festival, is celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Ehi Traditional Area in the Ketu North District in the Volta Region.

Gari festival

The festival is scheduled to take place at Ehi on September 28, 2019.

The festival, founded by Torgbui Dzeble Adukpo IV and his people in 2016, seeks to foster unity and serves as a medium for rallying the people of Ehi and its environs for development.

This year’s celebration focuses on the role of women in agribusiness as the festival will be used to raise funds to support self-help projects in the community as well as serve as a medium to promote women’s local agribusiness in gari production.

With the theme, “Empowering the woman through agriculture and entrepreneurship,” the festival seeks to acknowledge the fact that the role of women was key in the agribusiness, especially in the rural setting.

Dr Adjei-Baah, who is also a former Member of Parliament for Nkawkaw, acknowledged the challenges women went through in accessing funds and urged them to form cooperatives in order to access financial support.

MASLOC support

He challenged the women at Ehi who are into gari production to take advantage of the facility at MASLOC to expand their businesses in order to feed both the local and international markets.

“As a Board Chairman of MASLOC, which is a government organisation, I want to say that the doors of MASLOC are open to the women of Ehi to apply and any support that needs to be given would be given to expand their businesses.

“MASLOC is there to support start-up businesses and growing businesses. MASLOC is there for all Ghanaians to apply and once you apply, you will get that support.

“MASLOC facilities are very affordable. You just write and you will get the support with an attractive interest rate of only 12 per cent per annum. No bank will give you that,” Dr Adjei-Baah told the gathering to rapturous applause.

He was convinced that with such support from MASLOC, the women could expand their gari business.

He praised them for their innovative skills and urged them to use their innovation to create jobs in the area and make the town a model of economic hub.

Entrepreneurship

He reminded the women that as entrepreneurs, they could not run away from risks “because an entrepreneur is a risk taker and someone who is able to challenge a situation put before him or her to make something out of it.

Dr Adjei-Baah, therefore, advised the women of Ehi not to get discouraged because of the risks associated with businesses but to take advantage of available opportunities.