Wode Maya profiles Volta Winery
Meet Linda Ampah founder of Cadling Fashions & KAD Manufacturing https://youtu.be/r8IJIH1nI7I
From Stanford's Profile of Purpose:
Yemaachi Biotech: Africa’s Cancer Research Company – @YemaachiBio
Solar PV training via Green Solar Academy
From the Electricity Hub:
Green Solar Academy and Valentin Software, alongside the Takoradi Technical University in Ghana and KYA-Energy Institute in Togo, are providing Solar PV training and placement opportunities for graduates. This training is financial supported by Germany’s develoPPP.de fund.
Under the training scheme, BTech graduates and final-year students will undergo practical professional PV solar training on the essential skills needed to enable them to enter the job market upon graduation. Training will hold at the new Solar Training Centres. Upon completing the training, graduates will receive a 3-week internship with a Solar Hub West Africa company...[more]
Bsteel Ghana – A Metalworks company
Complete Farmer from deploys Satellite Technologies to increase Agriculture Value Chain – @techbuildafrica
A Techbuild update from Complete Farmer covered earlier:
Innovation continues to remain the key to unlocking the wealth of nations and it can be explored through various sectors of the economy. One such sector that has seen a massive innovation drive has been the agriculture space...[more]
Check out the Ghana & Cameroon Nodes of the Open Bioeconomy Lab @openbioeconomy
Current Nodes of the Open Bioeconomy Lab include Ghana & Cameroon the Open Bioeconomy Lab is an interdisciplinary research group contributing to understanding and creating an open, sustainable and equitable bioeconomy.
Gloria Allorbi Wants to Put Ghana’s Favorite Condiment "Shito " on the Global Map https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/gloria-allorbi-homemade-shito-ghana
From Thrillist
In January of 2020, Gloria Allorbi, returned to Los Angeles from her first trip home to Ghana in over ten years. The food she found herself eating back in the U.S. was falling flat in comparison to the dishes she had just been enjoying in Ghana. The owner of Gloria’s Shito, Allorbi describes herself as having become somewhat “snobbish” about the food around her, and after contemplating why it was that she was so discontent with what she was eating, she realized one very crucial component was missing: shito...[more]
Meet Akwasi Osei-Bobie Ansah founder of Farmers Hope "organic fertilizer" Company
A profile of Akwasi Osei-Bobie Ansah's company which turns cocoa waste into organic fertiliser
Meet Ibrahim Morla Alhassan | Ghana’s largest shrimp farmer via @wode_maya
From Wode Maya a conversation with Ibrahim Morla Alhassan founder of the Dans Ma company:
From Ghana | The making of Kantanka Akofena I Concept Vehicle https://youtu.be/a4Tqvr8SZXw
This video describes the making of the "Akofena", a sport vehicle made and designed by the Kantanka Automobile "Concept Team". The "Akofena" luxury sport car was unveiled at the just ended 40th Kristo Asafo Mission of Ghana Science and Technology Exhibition at Accra.
Ghanaian company Zaacoal, manufactures charcoal from coconut waste.
How We Made It in Africa in conversation with Amin Sulley founder of Zaacoal:
Our target market is the average Ghanaian household that uses charcoal for cooking.
For now, the wood charcoal sellers are our only competition but we anticipate there will be more competitors, considering the success of Zaacoal.
We started by convincing the neighbourhood wood charcoal sellers to stock our product. Their customers trust them and we had to win them over so they could convince the customers to change to coconut charcoal. We handed sellers free bags of Zaacoal. In return, they gave us their feedback and we improved the product. Once they saw how well it performed, they became our ambassadors and we used their existing network to get into the market. We price Zaacoal to enable the charcoal sellers to make more money selling Zaacoal than selling wood charcoal.
We do have other retailers: big stores situated in shopping malls, but this represents only about 5-10% of our market...[more]
Meet Deborah Opandoh – Product Design Engineer in the Cassava Processing Space
Deborah Opandoh is the Founder of the QueenTech Initiative,GhanaWeb reports:
...Deborah Opandoh's love for food, mathematics, and physics led her to pursue a degree in Agricultural Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2007.That flair has its roots two steps backwards when she would come top in a WAEC-organised Mathematics competition for all Junior High Schools in the Western Region. After serving as a teaching and research assistant upon completion of her bachelor’s degree, Deborah Opandoh decided to taste a master’s degree in Food and Post-harvest engineering at the same University. Towards the end of the first year of the programme, she got the privilege to work with the Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship (ADE) group, where they went to rural areas to see how women processed food. “We realised that most women who processed gari grated by hand, and this was dangerous, inefficient, very laborious and time-wasting. “They also pressed with rocks which was very dangerous especially to their health as most had issues with their waist and some would need men to carry and turn over the sacs,” she said. Deborah began working on the grating surfaces of the cassava grater for her Master’s...[more]
We need more of them…High School Entrepreneurs – Meet the Methodist Girls High School students who make paper from Banana Stalks in Ghana
via Face2Face Africa:
Speaking with Citinewsroom, two members of the team (founders of akoma.incorporated ), Maame Yaa Ohene-Eku and Naa Shormeh Nortey, described how the idea came up in their school’s entrepreneurship club after they identified the environmental damage that plastics cause. The girls further explained that there was a need to find solutions to plastic waste through paper packaging. With that, they had to find the best alternative to making paper beyond using trees. “We found that Plantain stem had the fibre that can be used to manufacture paper,” Naa Shormeh recalled. They made this discovery after they had conducted some research into how well banana and plantain stems could be used to make paper...[more]
Meet Cindy Tawiah founder of Diva By Cindy @Divabycindy
Meet Cindy Tawiah, an entrepreneur from Maryland who has revolutionized the beauty industry by launching the first ever automated vending machine that sells natural hair care products. Her company, Diva By Cindy, is an all-natural and alcohol-free hair care brand with extreme detangling abilities...[more]
Meet Adzigbli "Nana" Ama Comfort, founder of Namas Decor Ghana
From Black Business:
Adzigbli "Nana" Ama Comfort, a furniture architect and designer from Ghana, has become famous for her skills and creativity in the field of carpentry - a male dominated industry. Her dad trained her before he died, and now she is the CEO and founder of Namas Decor GH - one of the fastest growing furniture design shops in the world!...[more]
West Africa is keen to feed the UK post-Brexit
DW reports:
Ghana is spearheading a new project that explores how small farmers in the ECOWAS bloc can supply produce to the UK once it severs ties with the EU. Researchers are looking at how "what ifs" could become reality...[more]
AFRICA BY DESIGN | Michael Tetteh, Glass Blower, Krobo Ghana https://youtu.be/bBsfB6LvqYI
From AFRICA BY DESIGN:
Coconut Chips from Readi Cocochips Ghana
A profile of Readi CocoChips:
SAYeTECH Ghana @sayetech , multi-crop thresher manufacturer https://youtu.be/WFF2UC7ZYQY via @ASMEishow
SAYeTECH produces multi-crop threshers that use business model innovation to enhance food security and empower the poor. Our two main objectives are to reduce grain (sorghum, rice, maize, soybean and millet) wastage that could feed our future and to empower poor grain farmers with the multi-thresher that can reduce post-harvest losses of by up to 30%, providing enough food to feed Africa’s growing population. Simultaneously the multi-crop thresher will also be increasing the income of smallholder farmers, especially women, by up to 50% every year.
Meet Richie from Ghana founder of Didi Grande Restaurant Japan
DiDi Grande makes entrance in Azabu-Juban a classic American Grill & Italian in a contemporary yet comfortable surrounding designed. Utilizing both old and new methods of cooking, DiDi Grande offers simple yet elegant dishes while focusing on Selected Premium Black Wagyu from our Shikishima Farm in Nasu-Tochigi and Hokkaido Prefecture with seasonal japanese ingredients from the freshest market produce. We take pride in serving only the best quality Black Wagyu steaks to our guests...[more]
Manufacturing from DTRT Apparel #Ghana
Located in Ghana's capital city of Accra, our manufacturing facility employs over 1,500 workers and continues to grow each day. Dignity/DTRT has assembled a team of over 35 expat managers from over 8 countries with hundreds of years of combined apparel factory management experience. Through our management training program we are accelerating the knowledge transfer to our local staff and developing the 1st generation of Ghanaian apparel factory management.
Beyond the return: 28-year-old African American relocates to Ghana; starts food truck business
From ABC News Ghana
28-year-old Deijha Gordon has left her family in Brooklyn, New York to start a food truck business (based in basecamp Accra) Ghana.
The decision to come to Ghana for the first time and subsequently decide to relocate to the West African country is borne out of a sense of duty to help, Deijha tells ABC News...[more]
Wine from Ghanaian Cocoa Beans and Coffee & Cashew Fruit at Volta Winery Ghana
Volta Winery - quality wine made from the finest Ghanaian cocoa beans and coffee. Our wines include Redellen ,Country Cocoa Wine, Coffee Wine, Concordia...[more]
Building Innovative Technologies To Make Farmers Increase Profits – Okuafo Foundation
Okuafo Foundation has been working with over 600 'rural farmer leaders' to produce more food to feed the future. Reaching up to 30,000 smallholder farmers.
The Latest Crop of Science Innovators driving #Ghana forwards https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/01/16/ghana-science-epilepsy-inside-africa.cnn
From Inside Africa:
Africa Palm Oil Initiative: Training the Trainers in Ghana https://youtu.be/qE_Z4Bdd-0M via @proforest
From ProForest:
The APOI national team in Ghana are supporting sustainable palm oil by training extension officers from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Best Management Practices. These practices will help farmers to obtain a greater yield and therefore reduce the need to convert land for palm oil cultivation.
Made in Africa: Making a case for #Ghana ‘s batik fabrics
From CGTN:
Go to any market in Ghana and you'll no doubt see bolts of colourful fabric for sale. But in recent years, demand has fallen for locally made cloth. Imported, mass-produced fabrics may not be as beautiful, but they are cheaper. It's led one woman on a crusade to ensure that the knowledge of how to make Ghana's hand-printed batik fabric isn't forgotten.
Public Universities that are getting it right – Akokono Farming Research Centre KNUST #Ghana built in collaboration with @AspireFG
From TEK TV:
KNUST in collaboration with Aspire Food Group from Canada opens Akokono Farming Research Centre.
Public Universities that are getting it right – AquaFish Innovation Labs | Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) #Ghana
via Oregon State University:
During the last 10 years, AquaFish Innovation Lab collaborations have strengthened research and institutional capacity at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) establishing KNUST as a leading aquaculture research program in Ghana.
AquaFish Innovation Lab partners from the Department of Fisheries and Watershed Management at KNUST have helped to increase national fish production to address household food security and income.
Siyɛm Ghana Soap School founded by Yaa S. Fumanti
From Yaa S. Fumanti founder of Siyɛm Ghana Soap School:
I started Ghana Soap School in 2010 to provide practical skills training when it dawned on me that in Ghana, we had many small scale manufacturers who made soaps and cosmetics without actually knowing anything about the kind of ingredients they were handling. We are the first formalised soap school in Ghana...[more]
Meet Chiamaka Nwosu co-founder of Truckr | A company that helps connect cargo owners with truck drivers in #Ghana @truckrtech
A highlight from Google:
...The idea for Truckr came to life for Chiamaka after a conversation with her father. A longstanding importer of goods across Africa, he often complained about the frustrations he faced in shipping. Sometimes his precious cargo made the trip, but too often it got lost along the way. Hearing this sparked a thought in Chiamaka: what if she could solve this problem, and make life for people like her father easier?...[more]
Afriyie Obeng-Fosu the oyster mushroom producer changing urban Ghanaian diets
via Miss Agriculture Ghana:
In Ghana, the Miss Agriculture contest led by the United Women in Agriculture Foundation and the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture is a stage for young women with creative projects that have the potential to shake up the status quo of sustainable agribusiness – and to inspire more of their peers to take up the trade, too.
via
Here, Landscape News spoke with the current title-holder, Afriyie Obeng-Fosu about why oyster mushrooms are great for cities, how entrepreneurs can monetize industrial waste and the challenges facing West African agribusiness at large...[more]
The riveting story of Alima & Peter founders of @CowTribe #Ghana in "@Seedstars the Documentary "
Meet the KNUST #Ghana students making sanitary pads from banana stems
Yen reports:
Two Ghanaian students develop cheaper pad from banana stem - Emily Otoo-Quayson and Matilda Sampong, both of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, are brains behind the innovation Two Ghanaian university students have showed great innovation to develop sanitary pads from banana stem. Emily Otoo-Quayson and Matilda Sampong are both students of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The two ladies aim to solve the problem of majority of girls who cannot afford sanitary pads during menstruation...[more]
Complete Farmer @CompleteFarmer #Ghana Opens Smart Farming Platform To Buyers Globally
Modern Ghana reports:
Ghana-based smart farming company Complete Farmer today opened its platform to buyers who wish to purchase quality agricultural products at competitive prices, directly from the company’s tech-enabled farms.
The team leverages technology and data to optimize the complete agriculture value chain, from mechanized farming, to logistics and transport, offering the buyer traceability and visibility from order to delivery...[more]
Meet Agortime Beh founder of West Africa Snail Masters
Suame Magazine In The Emerging #Ghana Automotive Industry by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi
Nora Bannerman’s company – Sleek Garments #Ghana – builds clothing business that exports to US and European retailers
How We Made It reports:
Here’s how you diversify a nation’s economic base: take longstanding strengths in particular sectors, and build on them, creating wholly new industry clusters that are a logical extension of the original sector. That’s what Ghana’s Nora Bannerman did on a small scale in the 1980s, when she started Sleek Garments, a clothing manufacturing business based in Accra...[more]
Twelve selected as inaugural fellows for @Ashesi Venture Incubator
From Ashesi University:
Twelve Ashesi alumni have been selected as inaugural fellows for Ashesi's new entrepreneurship support programme, the Ashesi Venture Incubator. The Venture Incubator is a one-year incubation experience for recent graduates and alumni of the university. Over the course of one year, fellows are provided with the opportunity to build their business; and refine their business models through the incubator’s provision of business coaching from local and global business leaders, business development sessions, support services, and financial stipends...[more]
Sesi Technologies founded by Isaac Sesi develops affordable technologies to help African farmers increase productivity and minimize losses.
From Tech Review:
Isaac Sesi built a gadget he believes can tackle one of the biggest risks faced by farmers across Africa: the contamination of grains following harvest.
Sesi’s product, GrainMate, allows famers and grain purchasers to affordably measure moisture levels of maize, rice, wheat, millet, sorghum, and other staples...[more]
Spillbury Chocolate Spread from SFF #Ghana
Founded by Richard Kofi ObengSelected Fine Foods Limited's products include Spillbury Chocolate Spread:
Divine Express – Street Food From #Nigeria in New York
Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling the Soil Once Meant Shame – The New York Times
In the NYTimes:
After he graduated from university, Vozbeth Kofi Azumah (founder of
“West African Snail Masters,”) was reluctant to tell anyone — even his mother — what he planned to do for a living.
“I’m a farmer,” he said, buzzing his motorcycle between freshly plowed fields on a recent afternoon. “Here, that’s an embarrassment.”
In some parts of the world, farmers are viewed with respect and cultivating the land is seen as an honorable trade. But in a region where most agriculture is still for subsistence — relying on cutlass, hoe and a hope for rain — farming is a synonym for poverty...[more]
From #Ghana Green Afro-Palms an Agribusiness Processing Machinery Company cc @Oukwuani
From CitiNews:
Green Afro-Palms, through its GAPROTECH solution, run an innovation system that integrates a zero-emissions palm nuts and fibre processing assembly line; organic oils extraction complex; zero-waste residue converter for energy and animal feeds chain; upcoming insect proteins R&D program; and a fair-wages palm cultivation supply chain
Motorized Tricycles from Takoradi #Ghana
From Kofi TV:
Rammed Earth Construction Techniques from Hive Earth @hive_earth #Ghana
DW in conversation with Joelle Eyeson founder of Hive Earth:
More hereDW: What is the mission of your company Hive Earth?
Joelle Eyeson: Hive Earth is a construction company based in Accra, Ghana. I set it up with my business partner in 2016. I was able to bring my background in property management, and they brought their expertise in local materials and the local environment. The whole idea is that we build affordable and eco-friendly housing. We use locally sourced materials such as clay, laterite and granite chippings which are abundantly available in West Africa.
Sweet Art Chocolate Company #Ghana from Bean to Bar
The Joy Business Van highlights the Sweet Art Chocolate Company founded by Ruth Nana Ama Amoah:
M-Jap Smoked Fish #Ghana
Dried Pineapple Fruit Snacks from Sesa Mu #Ghana
The Joy Business Van visits the processing center of Sesa Mu (founded by Ashesi Alumni), the startup adding value to pineapples