Women entrepreneurs call for gov’t support

Women entrepreneurs who accompanied the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, to China have hailed the opportunity given them as a step in the right direction which will boost women’s businesses in the country if the trip becomes an annual affair.

The about 35 women business owners went on an eight-day trip to China with the First Lady to explore opportunities for business and investment.

Also in the First Lady’s delegation were some executive members of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), including the outgoing Treasurer, Mrs Leticia Benewah Osafo Addo, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Samba Food, and the incoming Treasurer, Mrs Grace Amey-Obeng.

The women met with investors from diverse fields, including building contractors, engineers, agro-processors and general merchants, to discuss business opportunities.

In separate interviews, some of the business women expressed their views on the trip and how helpful it would be to them as women business owners.

Sharing her perspective, Mrs Amey-Obeng, who is also the Executive Director of FC Perfumery, said the trip had been extremely useful to her.

Difficult doing business

According to Mrs Amey-Obeng, it has been difficult for women industrialists and traders doing business in China, saying they were normally left at the mercy of interpreters whose bargaining skills the women were not sure of.

She said many women had been defrauded, while others were able to make it in China.

However, she said while they were on the First Lady’s delegation, they were able to cut off the middlemen and deal directly with the players in the industry.

She was of the view that for the trip to be effective, there was the need for women-led businesses to come together and deal with investors in groups, instead of individual bases.

Mrs Amey-Obeng also applauded the establishment of a liaison office of the AGI in Qingdao, China, saying it would also help facilitate business activities between Ghana and China.

For her part, the Chairperson of the Reroy Group, Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, described the experience as wonderful.

Although a frequent traveller to China, she said the trip with the First Lady was an eye-opener, adding that going as a team was a useful platform which gave the women the opportunity to network.

She added that the trip helped her explore other business opportunities, as well as clinch new business deals.

If given the opportunity to participate again, she said, she would do it over and over again, adding that the opportunities available to the women were awesome.

She commended the First Lady, saying that was the first time a sitting First Lady had given women such an opportunity and expressed the hope that similar business trips would be organised yearly to give more opportunities to women.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio underscored the need for the government to provide more for the private sector, saying what she observed in China was that all the companies that the delegation visited had received the Chinese government’s support to grow.

More business opportunities

The CEO of UNI-JAY Limited, manufacturers of school uniforms and mining garments, Mrs Janet Abobigu who is also an Executive Member of the AGI, said the business trip helped her to strike business contacts for her garment industry.

She said she joined the First Lady’s delegation to China as a member of the AGI, but considering the opportunities that had been opened for them, she was happy she took that decision.

“I got in touch with a lot of investors in my area of work who are ready to inject more capital into the business,” she said.

She said she had been travelling to China for the past 10 years but she now felt fulfilled.

The CEO of the Makola Institute, Mrs Comfort Oduro-Nyarko, described herself as the “luckiest among her peers”.

Her institute is into the training of traders who travel outside the country to bring goods for sale.

The traders are taught basic business skills such as bank reconciliation, stock management, basic record keeping and French.

However, she said, after participating in the business trip with the First Lady, she had got other business ideas, such as adding basic Chinese to the curriculum.

She also got investors who were ready to partner her institute to train more market women on investment opportunities in China and was thankful to the First Lady for the opportunity.

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