IN some houses with dogs, providing them with their feed is perhaps the sole responsibility of the house help. Most of the time they are fed on left over food which according to Dr Adai Sai Yamoah is unacceptable. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare writes.
IN the late 1980s through to the early years of the 1990s, Dr Adai Sai Yamoah (Mrs), a veterinary surgeon petted a lot of dogs. As a result, she sought for more convenient, less costly and time consuming ways of getting them food as “feeding them was very expensive and time consuming” to her.
Today, that convenient, less expensive and time consuming method that she devised to use in feeding her dogs has hatched into a giant company that currently manufactures 10 tonnes of dog feed a month for West African dogs, given full time employment to nine people . She is also hoping to move out of Accra soon and quadruple or triple her present production.
Gazing at her animal feed office stocked with her Nutripak for dog food at Madina in Accra, Dr Yamoah said to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS amidst smiles that “this is actually the dog’s home. I have always believed that we can do it here in Ghana and I love taking up that challenge of setting up the first animal feed manufacturing company in this country .”
The animal feed manufacturing business in the country still remains fallow and perhaps in the West African sub-region as her amalgamated feed became the first and still the only feed manufacturing company in the country.
always the first
Prior to coming up with her Amalgamated Feeds Limited in 1992, Dr Adai Sai Yamoah (Mrs), the first female veterinary surgeon in the country had humbly stepped out of her public office after serving for six years. This according to her was to enable her “take proper care and give the needed attention to my children” and perhaps to her many pet dogs.
But nine years after taking that decision, Dr Yamoah lit up yet another “first” flame, marshalled yet another courage - this time round not to establish or expand a veterinary clinic - but to live up to her conviction of “we can do it in Ghana” attitude by establishing her Amalgamated Feeds Limited, an animal feed manufacturing company in the country.
Before coming up with Amalgamated Feeds, she had actually set up and ran her own veterinary clinic at Tesano.
So why the Amalgamated Feed Ltd to the total abandonment of the veterinary clinic? Her answer was simple: “A lot of people are running vet clinics but not a lot of people are making animal feed.”
the beginning in the challenges
Tracing events that led to her coming up with her present dog manufacturing company, Dr Yamoah said “I had a lot of dogs at the time and it was very expensive and time consuming to feed them. So I tried to come up with a more convenient way of feeding them”.
But the country’s unreliable utility sector and a rigid financing scheme has not been that fair to the vet surgeon now turned ‘their’ chef. According to her, the company’s operations had to temporarily shut down in 1998 partly as a result of the erratic power cuts which engulfed a large part of the country sometime 1997 through to 1998.
“Our supply could not actually meet the demand at the time and that was partly due to the then unreliable electricity power supply situation within the period. I also did not have access to finance for expansion to meet that supply, so in 1998, the company went down,” Dr Yamoah memorised.
Luck however beamed on her in 2003 when she chanced upon “a shareholder who committed finance into the company” for it to revive and has since “been behind me - being generous and encouraging - believing that I can do it.”
Currently, her product, Nutripak, both for dogs and puppies which she said is sourced from 98 per cent local materials is stocked in leading shops and supermarkets nation-wide.
According to her the company has also started exporting to neighbouring Togo, Nigeria, Cote d’ Ivoire, and Benin while strategising to cover the entire sub-region in the coming years.
Petting has, for the past few years caught up well with most Ghanaians especially those living in urban areas.
In the case of dogs, most people pet them to serve two purposes; for pets sake and to also serve as guard against the ever increasing urban house burglaries.
These people are therefore prepared to put in extra commitment, more resources and attention towards getting their dogs well trained as they aid or even take over from the always dozing guard officer at the gate.
Little attention is however given to their feed. Most dog owners feed their dogs on left-overs from the dining table or those from food vendors. Other dogs are left to scavenge for theirs at the nearest garbage or throw-away sites or better still sniffer to the butcher, crack some bones and hop to the gutter for a sip.
Of course, the well to do’s dog is upgraded to take its scraps from renowned food courts or restaurants or even get it prepared in the kitchen specially “for the dog.”
But all these boils down to one thing: Dog feeding on the human’s food and that to according to Dr Yamoah, the veterinary doctor is unacceptable.
“Dogs should not be fed on human food because they have a different body system from those of humans. People should actually stop feeding their dogs on left overs from their meals,” the vet doctor admonished further.
According to her, some people are now awakening to the need for them to feed their dogs on specially made feed for dogs, a situation she said is inducing demand for her product.
She said the company is currently putting in place the necessary measures to enable it increase its capacity to 20 tonnes a month as a way of expanding to meet the present demand and its corporate objective.
At the moment, Dr Yamoah said there is market for the product but “we would need to market our product to the people. We are actually planning to advertise the product but the high cost involved is scaring us now”.
importing irritates
For a woman who believes in ‘we can do it in Ghana’, seeing people import certain products (including the large quantities of dog feed) into the country when they can actually produce them here “just irritates” her a lot.
“You see, I could have import dog feed from China, package it here in Ghana, and believe you me, I would be assured of a ready market but that would not help anybody. See, I had to stand by the artisan who manufactured this equipment (pointing to one her company’s machine), directing him to do this, put this here and there so that I could get what I wanted. But Who told you I couldn’t have gotten that same machine abroad even at a much cheaper cost?” she queried.
Dr Yamoah, however, blamed the importing spree of most business folks on the country’s business environment which continues to pull the legs of most entrepreneurs and has as a result stifled most business ideas right at the point of their incubations.
“The environment in Ghana is not helpful at all,” she noted adding that “getting anything done in this country is very tiring. You have to go to one place two or three times just to get some small thing done.”.
But she has fortunately swam through these challenges courtesy a supportive family and a business partner.
future of amalgamated feeds
She was grateful to the GAWE describing it as “a very important, resource gathering platform for women entrepreneurs and I would advise all young female entrepreneurs and those wishing to become to join the association now”.
Torching on the future plans of Amalgamated Feeds Limited, Dr Yamoah said the company would soon be diversifying into the production of feed for tilapia and other animals to feed the local as well as the West African markets.
“We have actually ordered for equipment which should arrive before June and by the end of that month, a 30-40 monthly tonne of tilapia feed would begin,” she said.
“We have actually ordered for equipment which should arrive before June and the end of that month, a 30-40 monthly tonne of tilapia feed would begin.” She said.
message to young females
To young women, upcoming female entrepreneurs and those already in the field, Dr Yamoah said “don’t let anything stop you from doing what you want to do. Obstacles are ways for us to pass through. Don’t see them as challenges but as stepping stones on which we should pass through to achieve our individual aims.”
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