June 30 2000

Adwoa Okyere - African Bagg Limited

AO is a businesswoman in her late thirties.  She is separated with three children (13, 14, 16) but still lives in the house with her "flatmate" husband.  Two of her kids are in boarding school in London.

She spoke of times "before the revolution" in which her father was a major construction contractor.  Her mother was "an illiterate".  Her father lost the construction business after the revolution and she was forced "to make it on her own".   She was forced to make it for herself and began in business "selling a bag of rice".  She claimed that she was not good in school and therefore did not consider/could not go to college.  She instead wanted to paint.  Her father did not approve.  Her parents currently live in Kumasi and are infirm.

AO is a member of WAEN (WAEN staff had indicated that she was a former member).  AO said that she pays $450 a year for membership but does not often attend meetings.  She complained that WAEN offers no financial accountability to its membership.  

AO was a founding member of WAEN in 1993.  She claimed that she received no direct benefits from WAEN when asked by BM.  She said that ideally the prospect of cross regional sharing of information and ideas attracted her to WAEN.  She wanted to market her products in Abidjan and hoped that WAEN could help.  She said that WAEN was a good thing because as a member if you are in another country, she can call the network.  She used Nigeria as an hypothetical example.  Hypothetically she said you can introduce your product to a network member in another country.  Initially, WAEN was to sponsor grants but the financial accountability issue has limited this service.

AO is currently a sales rep for Siemens.   She acts as an agent for Siemens sales in Ghana and also sells in Nigeria and Ivory Coast in order to maximize volume.  She also is a rep for HUCK International, the British branch of an American company manufacturing hydraulic pumps.  She has had contracts with the Volta River Authority and the Nigeria Electric Power Company.   Before the Malaysians came in, she said, she supplied all the telephones in Ghana through the national telephone company.  She is now pursuing the cell phone market.  3 or 4 years ago, Malaysians came in to the phone market.  She commented that no one is happy with the Malaysians.  "They only want to buy from Asia and they are not very good in technical knowledge or in equipment."  Ghana has 70% interest in the telecom and Malays has 30%.  Ghana defers to the Malays and people are now turning increasingly to cell phones because of the dissatisfaction with the Malays, she claims.  

Her international contacts are all European.  When asked how she became involved in these enterprises, she responded that she reads a lot and is always looking out for new opportunities.  She found out about the pump business this way.  It took her 3.5 years to get Huck into the W. Africa market.  She read about the pumps and then went to an English engineer friend.  She learned that the contract was worth $200k to her if she got it.  

She also sells cocoa shells.  She read that in the UK they used the shells for soil mulch. Her business idea used the waste from Ghana's cocoa factories to sell in the UK.  She ended her shell business two years ago because problems with electrical power that caused her to delay processing the shells and she lost the market/contract.  "The market doesn't wait for you" she said.  She introduced a German business man to the market.  When she experienced problems with processing the german "took over the market" and began processing the shells in Germany.  

She uses lines of credit from HUCK and Siemans and acts as a sales agents for these companies.  She also has a building in the North industrial area (Kaneshie) of Accra.  She had planned to manufacturer sanitary napkins but could not due to financing problems(?).  She rents the factory to a woman manufacturing sanitary products (the woman was featured as a new entrepreneur in Time magazine last year).    In addition to her factory, she owns a building that includes her offices (unsure about whether the factory is joined to the offices or not).  AO formerly employed 10 people (including clerical staff) but now employs six.

AO also commented on the difficulty of securing bank financing.  She said that the high interest rates, payments needed to "dash" bank employees and the occasional sexual propositioning from bank managers has made dealing with banks very difficult for her.  She said that she would rather have delays in getting money than "sleeping with someone to get rich".  She also commented that the interest and bribery factors are prime reasons that people do not repay bank loans.  

AO was asked why more women were not part of women.  She commented that perhaps it was because most women are involved in trading and  also commented on the barriers that women would face in such organizations.

AO was also asked if she was a member of any other organizations.   She said that she was not and really "did nor have time" to spend in organizations.  She said that she knows of other women's business groups but that she was not in them.  She used as an example an organization of Ghana women engineers that she knew.  When asked if she had many friends socially, she said that her friends were the people she does business with.