June 27 2000 Notes: Team visited GAWE offices at #5 North Ridge Close. We were hopiung to meet with Lucia Aquacey (sp?) but were told by two office assistants that she had not been there today and had been in rarely this week. We were given her home number and urged to call her there. The two assistants cordially aided uss in gathering material about GAWE and its membership. This material included a copy of "The Woman Entreprenuer" (maiden issue, Oct. 1999), published by GAWE and detailing GAWE/AFWE activities and a booklet entitled "Assuring Power and Security in the 21th century: Issues and options" sponsored by the Ass. Of Ghana Industries and Trade Union Congress. These publications were displayed on a table in the offices. The office itself is on the second floor of the Silicon House, a building shared by several diverse businesses including a computer training center. The office contained a central area and two (three?) offices including the director's office, a copy office and storage room. Among the materials made available by the assts. Were a list of GAWE members with phone numbers ordered by industry sector. Copies of all sectors were made available. Also AFWE members who participated in the Miami conference were made available. Before we left, we met a GAWE member, Grace Adovor, who came to the office to meet with the director. She complained that she could not get through on the phone all day (it was apparently tied up on the internet by one of the aids.) Grace indicated to us that she wanted to go to the 3RD Global but instead attended her son's graduation from Hampton U. Ashe also said that she had planned to sponsor a young woman (daughter?) to display her wares at the 3rd but that the young woman could not get a visa. Grace complained that the visa process was unfair to young women because the embassy would not grant a visa without proof of financial means and would not allow 3rd party financial sponsorship. Grace is a producer of Batiks. According to an article written about her in the Woman Entrep. Publication she is among the 10 largest producers of batiks in the country. From the GAWE office, we traveled to the headquarters of Enterprise Africa. The EA office is in the North Ridge neighborhood next door to the German Embassy. EA has itss own, modern, self contained building with a high gate and watchman. The building is two or three stories tall and conatins a number of offices and several large meeting rooms. Neither of our contacts Alan K. or Patrick ?? were in the offices. Alan had been out of the country for some time, Patrick we just missed. We instead spoke to the office assiatnt Fefe Z. who provided us with several pamphlets and the names of people to contact at WAEN. Fafa said that EA is closely connected with the Private Entrepreneur Foundation and cooperates with them in sponsoring training and trade delegrations. EA is fee based. Interview with Patrick is pending. We then went to the WAEN offices on the 5th floor of the SSINT building downtown. WAEN is on the same floor as Databank Financial Services owned by Ken O. One of WAEN's active members. WAEN has one office in a suite of offices on the 5th floor. At WAEN we were greeted by Tina A. Tina is administrative director at WAEN responsible for regional coordination. WAEN also has a Ghana office in Accra that is responsible for Ghana activities. Among the information provided by Tina was that -WAEN members must have started their business with their own capital, own equity. -WAEN members pay $300 yearly membership fee. -National meetings are held monthly, all national assoc. meet every three months. -At least 15 members are required for the founding of a national chapter At the national meetings, members are obligated to submit a strategic action plan that describes what the members expect of WAEN in the interim between meetings and the long term. These plans, or a summary of them, are published in the monthly newsletter, the Networker. Tina provided us with several copies of the newletter with examples of these strategic concerns and initiatives. An organization chart of the WAEN organization is provided as attachment to this note. WAEN in Ghana currently has 39 active businesses and, we were told, 45 members. 17 (44%) of these businesses are own by what was described to us as "returnees" (see note below). The organizational structure includes PSSP (Project Support Support Project) funded by OECD Club du Sahel funded. WAEN was sponsored for the previous six years by USAID. USAID is now funding projects in EAST and Southern Africa, according to Tina. EXCO is the Executive Committee made up of 4 members serving for three years each, two franco two anglo. The Executive Secretary is current Mabusso Thiam who resides in Senegal. Tina and Joyce A. are the administrators of the regional office in Accra. Under each regional office are 13 national offices each with their permenant secretaries and coordinators. Tina provided us with a list of all members of WAEN and several of the categories of WAEN membership. Membership is divided into seven categories as follows: IT Tourism Auditors Transporters Lawyers Finance Agriculture Tina mentioned that one of WAEN's major activities was to list "business opportunities" in its publications. These opportunities are presented as "want to buy, want to sell, want to partner" with names and contact addresses (examples appear in "Trade Flash" monthly newsletters sponsored by WAEN). WAEN participates in partnerships with EA and PEF. At WAEN we interviewed Korentema Adi Dako a WAEN member and entrep. Who happened to be at the office. Korentema provided us with information on the size and status of several of the WAEN members listed in the WAEN book. One of the distinctions she pointed out, along with Tina and Joyce was the identities of WAEN members who were "Returnees" Ghanians who had lived abroad or were educated in Europe or the US and had "made their fortune" and were returning to Ghana. In explaining the Returnee phenomena, K. used her own experiences in the US an the personal factors she faced in returning. K. lived and worked in Kew York for several years. K. said that with two small children she and her husband felt a need to return to Ghana in order to be closer to their relatives including and especially an aging grandmother and to get away from American schools. K. indicated that the school issue was both a matter of the basic quality of education and her need to get away from racism and racial categorizations that were part of her American experience. She also noted that opportunities existed for returnees who had acquired technical skills or caches of money in the US an elsewhere. K. mentioned that "hitting the ceiling" in the West is also a motivating factor for Ghanian returnees. K. herself has recently (less than one year) opened up a PR firm in Accra. K. worked for several years at WAEN as an administrative director (Tina's current position). The PR venture was conceptualized following K.'s perception that she was constantly being called upon to speak, write and copy editing for WAEN and other parties. K. started the business (KAD) with her own funds. Her major challenge, she said, is to educate people and businesses in Ghana about the need for her services. She uses WAEN as a means of making contact with businesses and, in fact, she has had a major contract with a business based on a WAEN networking contact. She also mentioned that consulting firms, including Price Waterhouse in Ghana are (potential?) sources of contracts for her business. On the subject of business development, K. commented that funding I a problem through banks and that most entrepre. start with their own funds or attempt to bring in private investors. She used Bestbuysghana.com as an example of a venture supported with private funds. She also mentioned Venture Capital, a company supplying venture capital resources, as a source of possible investment. VC provides capital up to $500K which K. described as small scale. K. was very supportive of the idea of opening up W. Africa to outside investment opportunities. She mentioned AMEX an international private business consulting and development firm as a resource for entrepreneurial development. AMEX is organized by industry sector. K. provided us the names of the individuals in Ghana's AMEX office responsible for textiles (Grace Otoo Kwadney (sp?) and wood and furniture production (Gustav ??).