Massaging not romance; It's "a sweet alternative"

To the business community, shuttling between offices and that of the boss, the computer and the virtually hardly adjustable chair, the stairs, the car and then to the house can be unforgetably stressful. Maxwell Adombila AKalaare looks at what CEO of Spa Body N beyond termed "a sweet alternative to the seemingly sole available option to regaining ones energy.

In this era of ‘jostling for survival’, no matter the category of job one finds him/herself in, stress can be virtually considered a part of the ‘routine ordeals’ in this life.
Yet too much of everything is bad. And even in the case of stress, experts estimate that over 90per cent of the diseases that the world is currently battling with are stress-related.
According to Ms Hettie Mercer-Riketts, a US-based professional thereapist and now Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Spa Body N Beyond, a newly opened health and body care company at Osu in Accra, “nothing, perhaps ages the human fraternity faster - both internally and externally than high stress.”
But in an environment where stressing is virtually synonymous to surviving, stressing the body can be seen as a deadly-ritual in the bodies of many around the country and the globe at large.
Many have therefore resorted to patronising the numerous stress relievers commonly called pain killers and their associated drugs that have emerged to, perhaps serve the rising demand by people in the country as they seek to avoid the wrath and glaring consequences of stress in their daily routines.
But not all people who are constantly stressed-out by routine office and other related activities can withstand the sight, scent and taste of these drugs -  if only they are even hygienic to the bodies of their victims.
Ms Mercer-Riketts, who is a member of the Body and Massage Workers Association in the USA, owner of  a wellness spa in the USA and has 11 years of experience  in the body wellness and therapeadic industry told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that there was “a sweet alternative to these sometimes unapproved measures.
Accordning to her “there’s no denying the power of bodywork as a powerful ally in the healthcare regime. While eliminating anxiety and pressure altogether in this fast-paced world may be idealistic, massage can, without a doubt, help manage stress.“
But after chaining her wellness spars in the USA back to Ghana, her home country and currently hoping to plough back her 11-year old USA experience in the therapedic field into the Ghanaian scenes, Ms Mercer-Ricketts was confident that the country folk would soon embrace massaging as an alternative to drugs when it comes to treating diseases and staying healthy.

CHILDHOOD HABITS
Most habits are formed and some later disregarded. But in the case of Ms Mercer-Riketts, her childhood habit of using her hands to do things lingered to currently spur her into the body wellness and massage career.

Products of the company

“When I was a child, I loved doing things with my hands. While growing up, I thought of changing
carrer one day,” the CEO of the Spa Body N Beyond said and added that she at the time “had no idea of this (the body wellness and massage career).”
But when she later thought of how wellness could be used as an alternative medicine  when it comes to  relieving people, her present career of teaching in some massage schools in the USA and using “the professional knowledge to help people take care of their bodies” glared at her.
And when she later embraced the idea and went through its educational rudiments, she has today acquired an 11-year experience in the field, taught in a couple of massage schools in the USA including Georgia Medical Institute, Sanfordbrown Institute, the Avance Carrier Institute (ACI) among others. She owns  and operates a wellness spa in the USA, and is now  coming home to help her fellow Ghanaians to take care of there body.
 Her Spa Body N Beyond, the less than a month-old health and body care company at Osu in Accra is currently stocked with her HMR (an acronym of her name, Hettie Mercer-Riketts) Collections, a therapeutic massage oil collections that she said is produced by her US-based spa company and  “is guaranteed to delight your senses.”
The company, Spa Body N Beyond, she said also does wholesale of other spa and salon products to institutions who need them for retail to individuals and commerccial purposes. Few individuals who cannot imagine a therapist ‘squeezing’ their bodies in the name of massging,  Ms Mercer-Riketts said “we bring quality spa products to them too. Over here (pointing to a range of lotions, gels and oils on), we sell them to individuals and further counsel them on how to use them in the house at their own conveniece.”

MASSAGE NOT ROMANTIC
According to the therapeadic teacher who now doubles as CEO, “massage is just not a romantic thing as most people think of it but a natural alternative that is much safer and cheaper to recovering fast and healthy from sickness, curing diseases and relieving stress in the human body.
“See, just because massage feels like a pampering treat doesn’t mean it is any less therapeutic. People should really consider massage appointments a necessary piece of their health and wellness plan, and work with their practitioners to establish a treatment schedule that best meets their individual needs.”
According to her, “getting a massage can do you a world of good and getting massage frequently can do even more.”  She observed that most of the  illnesses that people are battling with can easily be treated with a professional massage.
“Very often,” she said “a simple massage is the answer to a problem. What just hovers onto my mind is why most people don’t try natural remedies. Many had headaches lingering for days but after 20 minutes of massage, the headaches miraculously stopped. You can now think of the thousands of persons who might have been alive today if only they had known and were encouraged, to use some of these natural remedies,” Ms  Mercer-Riketts asked.

A WOMAN IN BUSINESS
For Ms Mercer-Riketts who has for the past 10 years been running own businesses in the USA, “being a business woman has being good so far.
It seems easy to be in business but not as it looks; it is harder than working for somebody because you  hardly close from work and would have to deal with employee problems and the likes.”
But in the face of all these challenges, the Spa Body N Beyond CEO said “there’s pleasure in it (being a woman entreprenuer) more than all.”      Hettie is on hettie@spabodynbeyond.com
 www.spabodynbeyond.com

Korea investment agency sets up Ghana’s offices

THE Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), a Republic of Korea-owned institution tasked with the responsibility of transforming the country’s economy into export-driven one has opened its official business directorate, the  Korea  Business Centre (KBC) in the country.
The office is expected to serve as a one-stop shop, providing the Korean business community in the country and the sub-region with first hand business information and investment opportunities existing in Ghana and the West African sub-region.
The Vice President of the KOTRA, Mr Han Chul Lee, said at an opening ceremony in Accra that the country’s estimated 24.5 million populace coupled with the recent discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities meant that the Ghana’s economic growth would soon be rising.
“We, therefore, think that both countries (Ghana and Korea) need to expand their diplomatic ties to help in this regard,” the Mr Chul Lee noted.
According to him, government’s major policies in solar power extensions, transportation, communication and the others were areas in which “the Korea people possess much knowledge in.”
He was, therefore, optimistic that the KOTRA’s KBC would help expose the expertise of Korea to the Ghanaian government while helping to cement the existing diplomatic relationships between the two nations.
The Trade and Industry Minister, Ms Hanna Tetteh, observed that “having an office like this in Ghana holds a future for both nations and that the office would not only make our respective businesses viable but would help strengthen and deepen our Korean and Ghanaian economies and make us even closer.”
She was optimistic that the establishment of the KBC in the country would further encourage “more Koreans to invest in Ghana”, adding that “government wishes to extend its appreciation to the various Koreans already doing businesses in the country.”
  The Korean Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Sang Hak Lee, said Ghana’s economy was growing than any other African country’s economy  due to the country’s socio-political stability acquired over the years.
“Korea is a model in the Asian continent. Ghana is also a model in the African,” the Ambassador observed, adding that “the opening of the KBC in the country would enable both nations to partner each other even closer.”
According to him, most of the Korean business community were knocking at the doors of Ghana and further hinted that the Korean Exim Bank would soon be setting up its offices in the country.
The country Director of the KOTRA, Mr Doh-Jae Yim, said the new centre in Ghana was the 102nd office of the KBC world-wide.
 The KOTRA was set up in 1962 to help transform the country into an export-driven economy and had since created its offices throughout the world.

Starting harsh, ending sweet, The story of Matamiss Enterprise

 If the saying that progress in life is not an event but a process is anything to go by, then the rise of  Ms Matilda Amissah from street hawking to the establishment of Matamiss Enterprise, a pottery producing and exporting company at Tema in Accra says it better. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare looks at the humble beginnings of the company.

THE virtually half-a-day-long intriguing life story of Ms Matilda Amissah, the brain behind a pottery manufacturing and exporting venture in Tema - Matamiss Pottery is short: She was orphaned at age 17,  took to street hawking as she sought to care for herself and later graduated to a petty trader in clothes and food crops.
But the political tension in the country around the late 1970s did not help matters as it mired her business and caused her to later migrate to Nigeria to engage in kenkey selling for two years. That kenkey selling venture also collapsed thereby catapulting her into househelp jobbing at the then Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso Embassy in Nigeria.  Politically motivated upheavals in Nigeria around her days of stay equally did not help matters as she later had to proceed to the United Kingdom in search of a living. 
Two and half years later - 1998, she returned, but hit a hard rock which nearly shattered her life. But after she was introduced to the Lord, she re-galvanised, chanced upon the pottery business and with an urge for innovations, savings and committment to the job, her Matamiss Pottery has today become a renowned guru in the manufacturing and exportation of pottery products world-wide.

THE BIRTH OF MATAMISS
Ms Amissah told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that Matamiss Pottery is the fruits of her habitual savings from “the little money that I got from my past ventures.”
According to her, she had chanced upon a “a beautiful cane basket that was gifted to a newly wedded couple, I inquired about the whereabouts of the basket and was told that it came from a village in Akim-Oda in the Central region. “I later traced the man who made the basket and convinced him to make them in large quantities for me to sale,” she recollected.
After the man had agreed to her request (make the baskets on commercial quantities for her to sale), Ms Amissah said she stored those baskets for one year and later took them to an exhibition.
But while at the fair, her baskets’ patrons, aside patronising the baskets that she brought there, also requested for “something like flower pots” of which she at the time had little knowledge on.
As a result, Ms Amissah said she later got somebody to supply her samples of the flower pots, of which she intend sought more innovative ways of making the “pots look exemptional and attractive as the pots were just ordinary ones.  
According to her, she later re-traced the man that had supplied her the pots to see “if she could put the basket on the pot.”
The man, she said successfully did just that; “drilled holes round the pot and with a chain, he rapped the basket on the pot” to give it the innovative and exceptional look that Ms Amissah had sought for.
But as news of an intended visit of the then PIER 1, an American buying group to the country filtered to Ms Amissah through the then National Association of Handycraft Exporters (NAHE). She prepared her ‘innovative and exceptional pot-baskets to exhibit at the said event.
“I took my products to the fair and fortunately for me, I got an order to produce 50,000 pieces. That order really threw me off board,” Ms Amissah  recollected.
In her attempt to get the order supplied in time, Ms Amissah said she later brought back the ‘Akim-Oda pot man’ and another  pottery expert at Asamakese to Accra to help in the production.
She mentioned that the deal was well executed and in time “but because I was still new in the business, I paid more for the various services that I employed and that seriously affected my profit margin.
But for a woman who had consistently learnt to save and subsequently “plough the profit into the business,” however small  the profit was.  That according to her was the beginning of Matamiss.
And since then, Ms Amissah said her internationally proned Matamiss has being producing and supplying ceramics to its international markets based on the orders it receives from the frequent international fairs that she attends.
The Matamiss currently has 10 permanent employees and exports its products to the United States of America, Holland, Italy and Germany. As for the local market, Ms Amissah said “I have given that to my son to handle.”
She said the West African Trade Hub, the sub-regional wing of the United  States Agency for International Development (USAID) last year sent the company a ceramic designer from the USA “to help us improve on our work, particularlly the designs.” The said designer, she said has since left after spending six months with Matamiss.

THE CRISIS THAT HIT MATAMISS 
“Everything was good for the business until the 2008 financial crisis in the USA hit us hard and reduced the business drastically,” Ms Amissah remembered,  adding that “during the crunch, there was virtually nothing for me to do but I did not give up. For me, it will be well even when things are terrible.”
At the moment, Ms Amissah said things were normalising and the company was currently sourcing for funds to enable “us acquire a workshop, buy a big oven and electric potters’ wheels that would help us expand our production.”
The export market, she observed was full of uncertainities, a situation Ms Amissah said has  made  it difficult for her to access funds from financial institutions in the country.
But even aside those uncertainities, Ms Amissah said “I don’t always want to waste my time going to these banks.  I just save and later plough those savings into my business.

 ADVISE TO THE YOUTH
On GAWE, Ms Amissah said “this is another good platform for women entreprenuers to come together and discuss things that would push their businesses forward.”
And to those who are thinking of giving up on their present endeavours because they are staggering through series of challenges, Ms Amissah’s advise is “we don’t use one day to whiten decade-old rotten teeth; It is small small, don’t rush. And when things are not going well, pray and ask for the Lord’s directions. There’s no short cut to life in this world yet.” Matilda is on matamissent@yahoo.com

In our next issue, we will discuss what motivated Ms Hettie Mercer-Riketts, the Chief Executive Officer of Spa, Body ‘N Beyond, a newly opened health and body care company at Osu in Accra to 'come home' with his therapeadic experience.

Internet Journalism - A mounting threat to the newspaper industry

Analyses by: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare

VARIOUS sectors of businesses the world over and Ghana in particular continue to receive mounting challenges from the ever increasing patronage of the Internet and technology for that matter.
This Internet, powered by technology and its numerous products continue, on a daily basis, to provide fertile grounds for businesses to thrive while at the same time gradually crumbling others.
The country’s theatre industry, until recent rejuvination of the sector by some theatre performance favourites nearly collapsed following the emergence of video and other enhanced equipment such as VCDs.
Another such sector of businesses that presently receives direct threats from the increasing patronage of the Internet in Ghana is the newspaper industry.
Until the emergence of the Internet, access to news and current events was the sole perogative of the media; both electronic and print.
While most people stayed glued to their electronic media in wait of the 'news', others made it a daily routine and habit of flipping through newspapers as they searched for current events in their sorroundings and the globe in general.
The emergence of the Internet and its consistent rising patronage among all manner of persons across various age groups, backgrounds and education qualification has, however, virtually snatched this sole perogative from the media.
With access to the net, most people are now creating and maintaning their own platforms on which they update themselves and their supposed audience on  current events making news in the country and the globe as well.
The electronic media’s timed sort of news reportage in the country even makes it next to this Internet journalism as far as ‘news’ was concern. And as for the daily nature of newspapers, the least said about them the better.
The shooting up of social media such as facebook and the likes has equaly not helped matters as they have intensified the quest for young people to continually stay online.
As most young people stay glued to their laptops; networking with friends and family through these platforms, they intermmittedly update each other on events around them that they feel worthy sharing.
The media, in this modern era can therefore not claim sole ownership over news delivery in Ghana and the world over, a situation that continues to, on a daily basis, reduce the audience level of these media houses and consequently do same to their revenues.
The Internet patrons while online also get access to various kinds of advertisements and promotions (a major source of revenue and audience to newspapers) online as equally pertains on the print and electonic media. It is interesting to note that most of these adverts are mostly repeated on the media, be it print or electronic.
Indeed, the net’s consistent rising patronage among people within the globe and the country in particular is also slowly but surely snatching advertising revenues from the media and newspapers in particular on to the emerging social networks.
As more and more people continue to spend much time and attention on the net, advertisers would gradually see no reason why they should continue to advertise on newspapers, TVs and on radios when modern mediums powered by the net provides them higher audiences and a flexible way of getting those adverts through to these changing audience.
This hiking patronage of the net among people of all walks of life therefore makes it worthy asking if the media, particularly the newspaper business has any use to these people.
As these challenges continue to threaten the patronage of newspapers in the country, newspaer houses would definately have to live up to the challenge or gradually bow out of the competition, courtesy a new form of media, the Internet Journalism.

The way forward for the newspaper business
In business competitions, one sector or company thrieves on the weaknesses of the other. The saying that one man’s meat is another man’s poison therefore manifests clearly well in the business arena.
The delayed sort of news relay from the traditional media (electronic and print) as pointed out earlier has helped fertilised this present increasing patronage of Internet Journalism among most people in Ghana and the world at large.
But even as people continue to switch to these net powered social mediums for real news, the credibility of those imformation still leaves many people doubting. Most Internet sourced information mostly turn out to be  half truths.
This phenomenon has therefore helped fuelled people’s perceptions that news stories from Internet sources might as well not be true afterall.
The newspaper industry can therefore easily capitalise on this lapse to revitalise its fast dwindling ‘news delivery’ perogative which is equally doing same to its revenue fortunes and existence in business.
While acknowledging that some Internet sourced news stories and information indeed raise eyebrowns on their credibilities, one must accept the fact that some Internet sites have gained their credibility over the years. The likes of myjoyonline.com, citifmonline.com, ghanaweb.com and others have over the years attained credible images as sites to rely on for credible information in the country when it comes to news stories.
Newspapers houses should therefore devise ways of nurturing and maintaining credibility as far as news delivery is concern as a strategy of wrestling its audience from Internet Journalism.
Another area that would be of interest to newspaper house as they battle this Internet Journalism is the issue of ‘news reporting and ‘news analyses’.
At the moment, an increasing number of people continue to receive ‘raw news’ from their mobile phones, laptops and the likes courtesy the Internet. But what these people now yearn for are insightful and deep answers to questions such as “What led to this?, how did it all start? when was the first of such an incident in Ghana? would such a thing ever happen again? and the likes.
People would therefore now expect newspapers to ananlyse the news rather than just reporting on it; afterall, it is that same news that they read on the net so why bother reading newspapers again, they may ask.
As a result, newspaper houses must shift from doing news reporting to news analyses if they indeed want to remain in business come the next decade.
Another thing is for newspapers to groom readers. Ghana has a poor record of reading habits especially among the youth and the same holds when it comes to the reading of newspapers for whatever information one may think of. Newspaper houses must therefore cultivate and continually nurture a reading culture especially among the country’s young individuals in other for them to take over from their ageing readers.
The Junior Graphic, printed and published by the Graphic Communications Group Limited is  a good initiative in this regard and other newspaper houses must therefore take a cue from it.
Otherwise, before the begining of the next decade meets the end, many people would have to strategise to revive, this time round, not the theatre industry but the country’s newspaper businesses.

Quest for job fulfillment; The beginning of Awesome Angels

Job satisfaction is a key determinant in the quality of service. But how many employees in the country derive maximum satisfaction from their present work place? Maxwell Adombila Akalaare looks at how young Ms Sharon Gboney’s desire for job satisfaction pulled her out of her former office employment into the realms of women entreprenuership.

When young Ms Sharon Gboney started applying the classroom theory that she had acquired while schooling at the Central University College in Accra, she got little job fulfilment as she had expected.
As a result, a few people, including family members advised her to engage in something else that was more fulfiling to her. Those thoughts of “why not just pull out and engage in something more fulfilling than this office work”.
Little, however, did she know that putting those thoughts together with the pieces of advice from family members and friends to work would today grow into her Awesome Angels to manufacture beads, hats, shoes, decorate and plan events and promotions in Accra.
Today, the fruits of that desire to “engage in something else fulfilling” has being her fashion related company named Awesome Angels. The company currently employs five people, intermittedly trains interested persons in craft acquisition and brands chocolate and souvenirs aside its core business of manufacturing beads and hats and the planing and decoration of events and promotions for all persons

Then and now
Looking back to her days at the office and those in the entreprenuerial realms, Ms Gboney said that “it’s been good so far.”
She, however, said the beginning was not smooth. "When I first started operations, things weren’t easy at all but with time, it got well. Though it is still not easy, we believe with time, Awesome Angels would become a household name in the country's fashion industry”.
Ms Gboney, a lady who was born and groomed in the midst of women entrepreneurs, stumbling on such challenges were nothing new to her and could therefore, not stall her targeted goals.
She told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that operations of her now Awesome Angels started way back in 2008 " in a house at Latebiokoshie where I sold my wares through my sister's fashion shop. A few months later, we moved into this (referring to the office building which has separate rooms each dedicated to displays of the company's wares, training, manufacturing and the rest) building".
According to her, business was "a bit slow at the time we started operating from here, but we are gradually growing and hope to, in the near future attain the image that we wish for ourselves."

Market for the products
Ghana's 24 million population though considered as a population explosion and therefore a mounting challenge on the country's infrastructure is only a drop when compared to the nearly 200 million Nigeria population. But as Nigeria battles with its numerous inhabitants, market for products in one of the most populous country in the sub-region continue to widen perhaps to the envy of the small populated countries such as Ghana.

Sharon poses with some of her products

According to Ms Gboney, the country’s small population figure when compared to that of Nigeria was hindrance to the marketing of company’s wares and thriving of businesses, especially to the country's present booming fashion industry.

The fashion industry in the country is currently booming, a situation that can be attributed to the desire of most people 'not to repeat attires' and also due to the ease and quickness at which the country's folks are embracing modernity. Most people are thus shying away from the old held conservative dressing styles in Ghana to welcome these emerging fashion trends.
As a result, most fashion events, shops and companies are consistently springing up country wide to serve this increasing demand. This has given birth to most fashion events, shops and companies in the country as they consistently spring up country-wide to serve this increasing demand.
These numerous fashion related businesses have thus adopted various promotional strategies as they each seek to gain a market share and stay in business. These strategies mostly include pricing and the quality attached to their wares.
According to Ms Gboney and her Awesome Angels, the company uses glass in making the beads “unlike others who mostly use plastic. This means that our products should be priced higher than the others. We believe that it is the end product that matters. So, when we price them higher than the others, most people find it difficult to understand. But some of them after using the product for sometime would come back to say “oh I now understand why yours was higher than the others."
She said her company had made a resolve not "to promise but to commit ourselves to an excellent end products; we under promise but we over deliver."

Formal education
In Ghana, self employment in the areas of craft, entreprenuership and the likes have long been tagged as "jobs for the dropouts". As people in the western countries see formal education as an urgent spice to the entire package of self employment and trade acquisition and its application in particular, those in the African continent and Ghana to be specific see it as an end to an office work.
Until recently, most people in the country were of the view that 'hand work' which mostly grows into self-ran companies were the sole reserves of those with little knowledge in the classroom or the dropouts.
Ms Gboney, however noted that her experience in formal education, BSc Administration in Marketing acquired at CUC was a massive blend to her current business operations.
She therefore entreated all women entrepreneurs and those aspiring to become to "spice it up with formal education. Education gives you that kind of exposure and experience that you need to apply to when it comes to the job.

Finance for expansion
In a country were the financial sector and its lending scheme is tight and ‘discouraging’ to the business community that needs these finances most, only the risk taking business folks can afford to go for loans for expansions for their businesses.
Ms Sharon Gboney is not one of them. She told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that she prefers mobilising funds from her family members and friends than going to the banks for loans.
"It is difficult to access the bank’s funds and their repayment terms do not also take into consideration the business’ performance at the time.
“For now, I prefer to get my ‘loans’ from family members and friends rather than from the banks. But if we become big one day, then we can go for their loans.”
Why? Well, Ms Gboney says “May be its because I'm not a risk taker or we are not big as we want to become that is why.”

A woman in business
Entrenched perceptions in this country have long relegated women to household chores, care takers and other community-based activities outside the permits of revenue generating enterprises.
The few who have, until recent times successfully broken that jinx have had to engage in menial revenue earning yet risky activities of petty trading and the likes as they sought ways of taking care of themselves and providing the immediate needs of their children.
The situation is however changing for the best. Women are nowadays robbing shoulders with their male counterparts in the areas of entreprenuership, a situation that is promising to remain for good. But the situation is not that easy as women try to adjust their long held household and 'mother' chores with those of business.
For women, combining business trips, capacity building training and workshops with family duties is just as hectic as one can imagine. And that gets worst in the case of the married ones as they would have to 'tactfully' marry the responsibilities of a 'married woman' with those of 'a woman entrepreneurs'.
But for Ms Gboney, combining her womanhood with the activities of her Awesome Angels has being so far "okay". She, however, hoped that her present experience with "a woman entrepreneur’' would continue after she tights the knot "some time to come".
For now, Ms Gboney said it is her target of making the Awesome Angels at Mamprobi along the Banana Inn Road a house hold name in the country. Sharon is on hagboney@yahoo.com

In our next issue, we will discuss what gave birth to Mrs Matilda Amissah’s Matamiss Enterprise, a pottery producing venture at Tema.

BUSAC receives more assistance

The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have signed a delegated co-operation agreement in which the USAID would contribute US$400 million towards the successful implementation of the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC) phase II.
The DANIDA had earlier committed US$800 million into the fund’s operations and is now promising to make good use of the trust reposed in it by the USAID as the co-operation delegator in the successful execution of the agreement, the first of its kind between the two bodies on development co-operation levels.
At a function to sign the agreement, the Head of Development Co-operation at DANIDA, Mr Jan Poulsen, said the agency was happy to see fruits from an effort it initiated three years ago.
According to him, though the Denmark Government in 2008 sought ways of tightening co-operation with the then new Obama Administration, the DANIDA in Ghana was “interested in development co-operation with the Obama led administration through the USAID.”
“Through the signing of this delegated co-operation agreement between DANIDA and USAID, I’m, therefore, pleased to report back to Denmark that mission has been accomplished.”
He said though the USAID US$400 million comes at the back of DANIDA’s own US$800 million financial committed towards the successful operations of activities of the BUSAC fund, “there is still room for more funds.”
He was thus pleased to hint that the agency would in the coming months be signing some financial agreement with the European Union’s Commission (EUC).
The Mission Director of USAID Ghana, Ms Cheryl Anderson, said the financial commitment by the USAID was its commitment to help Ghana reduce poverty, increase employment, and create a strong private sector. “We are doing this by giving business a voice,” she explained.
The Coordinator for Trade Sector Support Programme at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Joe Tackie, said the ministry was pleased to have the “BUSAC phase II run side by side with the Private Sector Development Strategy (PSDS) II, a programme aimed at reboosting the stand of the private sector in business advocacy.”
The BUSAC fund steering committee has meanwhile opened talks with the EUC aimed at signing a financial agreement in the near future to help in the operations of the fund’s activities.
The fund is a grant facility initiated DANIDA’s Support to Private Sector Development (SPSD) and seeks to assist the country’s to advocate local, regional and national authorities to create an enabling business environment for a competitive private sector.

‘Decentralise business support services’

THE Programme Specialist at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ms Christy Ahenkora Banya, has called on the country’s oversight institutions on business investments to decentralise their activities to enable prospective investors to easily access their services in the regions.
Ms Banya said the over-concentration of institutions, such as the Registrar General’s Department, in Accra did not encourage entrepreneurs to invest outside Accra, adding that “that is why we have virtually all the businesses springing up in Accra alone.”
Speaking at a roundtable discussion organised by Shear Power Ventures (SPV), a community-based advocacy group, Ms Banya asked, “why do I have to relocate to Tamale, Bolga and the likes when I have to go back to Accra to sign any piece of paper that I would need for my business activities?”
She further called on the district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to open up their doors to investors wishing to set up businesses in their areas of jurisdiction.
Shear Ventures, which also organises the ‘Portrait of an Excellent Woman Award,’ was using the roundtable discussion to forge stronger and more rewarding partnerships between business development, community and the government.
The Acting Director, Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mrs Monica Asare, who represented the sector's minister at the function, said the ministry's Trade and Industrial Policy which was "being finalised" for a launch was focused on helping women entrepreneurs in key sectors of the economy to affect the processing and trading outputs of rural-based agricultural producers.
According to her, the policy, when implement, would have "enough room for the economic empowerment of women" in the country.
She noted that government would be using the said policy “to encourage the provision of affordable business development services to female entrepreneurs and to develop the needed lending programmes for women and low income earners engaged in industrial activities.”
That, she observed, was necessary to help encourage the provision of affordable business development services to female entrepreneurs in the country.
The programme was attended by representatives from the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and some of previous winners of the ‘Portrait of an Excellent Woman Award.’

Shear Power holds confab on partnership

SHEAR Power Ventures, a community advocacy group and organisers of the Portrait of an Excellent Woman Awards, would on April 8, this year organise a roundtable discussion aimed at “forging stronger and more rewarding partnerships between the business development, community and the government.”
The discussion are expected to centre on two thematic areas: Local Economic Development (LED) - maximising sustainable profits and on the ‘business’ social entrepreneurship - cutting edge perspective and implications for women.
In a letter signed by the CEO of the Shear Power Ventures, Mrs  Ewra Adwoa Buahema, and copied to the Daily Graphic, the company said that the private sector has over the years been perceived to make generous financial and other contributions towards showbiz and individuals.
“While this is good, it has become increasingly necessary that private sector expands its sponsorship horizons to capture and focus on the development exigencies of communities,” the statement added.
The statement added that the group’s numerous experience in sponsorships and investments of various initiatives would be brought to bear on the upcoming event “with invaluable insights from the LED sector”.
The event is expected to see Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hanna Tettey, and the Deputy Minster of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, as guests of honours with the group CEO of Pentax Management Consulting Services, Mr Joe Apeah as the facilitator. 

BUSAC to receive more assistance

The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and the United  States Agency for International Development (USAID) have signed a delegated co-operation agreement in which the USAID would contribute GH$400 million towards the successful implementation of the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC) phase II.
The DANIDA had earlier committed GH$800 million into the fund’s operations and is now promising to make good use of the trust reposed in it by the USAID as the co-operation delegator in the successful execution of the agreement, the first of its kind between the two bodies on development co-operation levels.
At a function to sign the agreement, the Head of Development Co-operation at DANIDA, Mr Jan Poulsen, said the agency was happy to see fruits from an effort it initiated three years ago.
According to him, though the Denmark Government in 2008 sought ways of tightening co-operation with the then new Obama Administration, the DANIDA in Ghana was “interested in development co-operation with the Obama led administration through the USAID.”
“Through the signing of this delegated co-operation agreement between DANIDA and USAID, I’m, therefore, pleased to report back to Denmark that mission has been accomplished.”
He said though the USAID GH¢400 million comes at the back of DANIDA’s own GH¢800 million financial committed towards the successful operations of activities of the BUSAC fund, “there is still room for more funds.”
He was thus pleased to hint that the agency would in the coming months be signing some financial agreement with the European Union’s Commission (EUC).
For her part, the Mission Director of USAID Ghana, Ms Cheryl Anderson, said the financial commitment by the USAID was its commitment to help Ghana reduce poverty, increase employment, and create a strong private sector. “We are doing this by giving business a voice,” she explained.
The Coordinator for Trade Sector Support Programme at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Joe Tackie, said the ministry was pleased to have the “BUSAC phase II run side by side with the Private Sector Development Strategy (PSDS) II, a programme aimed at reboosting the stand of the private sector in business advocacy.”
The BUSAC fund steering committee has meanwhile opened talks with the EUC aimed at signing  a financial agreement in the near future to help in the operations of the fund’s activities.
The fund is a grant facility initiated DANIDA’s Support to Private Sector Development (SPSD) and seeks to assist the country’s to advocate local, regional and national authorities to create an enabling business environment for a competitive private sector.

Unilever launches Lifebuoy soap

Unilever Ghana Limited, the country’s unit of Global Unilever, has introduced Global Unilever’s Lifebuoy brand, a germ protection soap, into the Ghanaian market, aimed at changing the hygienic conditions of its patrons.
The Lifebuoy is one of the company’s oldest brands that was launched in 1894 in the United Kingdom and is currently said to have over 1.6 million users across the globe.
Speaking during a well-staged ceremony to launch the brand in Accra,  the Deputy Minister of Health,  Mr Rojo Mettle Nunoo, said preventive care  was a huge chunk of responsibility for the Ministry of Health and that teaching people to practice preventive care was the most cost effective aspect in the health delivery system.
The launch of the soap in Ghana, which was done on World Health Day - April 7, came at a time the country had declared the current cholera outbreak as an epidemic.
“We in Ghana, therefore, with open arms, welcome this life-saving soap into our midst and look forward to the intervention that Lifebuoy would make in our lives and the effect it would have on the health and hygiene habits of the those who will buy and use it,” the deputy health minister added.
He, therefore, called on Unilever Ghana to make the soap available to consumers  “at an affordable price” as they get attached to it in the coming days.
The President of the Medical Women International Association (IMWA), Prof. Afua Hesse, who chaired the function, said  the country currently needed a personal hygiene revolution through proper hand washing with water and soap.
The important lesson to be learnt in proper hand-washing, according to Prof. Hesse, was that “everything that is worth doing is worth doing well. There is a correct way of washing hands just as there is an incorrect way of washing one’s hands.”
The Unilever Ghana MD, Mr David Mureithi, said the company was optimistic that the launch of the product would “mark the beginning of a critical behaviour change to impact positively in the lives of Ghanaians.”

GCNet donates to customs division

THE Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet), an ICT-based customs clearing solutions provider, has presented 15 laptops and their accessories to the Customs divisions of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to help them to improve on their delivery.
The presentation formed part of the company’s annual capacity building programme for its partners aimed at upgrading their skills in the field.
Making the presentation, General Manager of GCNet, Mr Emmanuel Darko, said the presentation was a response to a request by Customs for laptops to “enable them work efficiently in their core mandate.”
He said the company aimed at making the operations of its partners highly efficient and convenient as both parties sought to maximise revenue collection for the state.
GCNet last year presented 47 computers to personnel at the Tema port and 42 to those at the Kotoka International Airport. It also conducted capacity building training for personnel that man the various collection points.
Mr Darko said “more computers will come but those would be for agencies for the electronic processing of permits in the clearance process.”
The Commissioner, in Charge of the Customs divisions of the GRA, Major General Carl Modey, thanked the GCNet for the kind gesture and for “fulfilling the promise in record time.
He further called on the company to sustain the private-public partnership (PPP) between the GRA and GCNet, saying the capacity building programmes for customs officials had helped them to increase efficiency among the personnel.
“We encourage you to go further in your duties to us and the state so that at the end we both would be better off,” he added.
The commissioner pledged that the laptops would be put to good use saying “they will be distributed to positions and not personalities so that if the officers are no more holding that position, we can transfer the machine to the relevant person.”

BoG asked to encourage money lenders

THE National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has urged the Bank of Ghana, to "strategically encourage the proliferation of money lenders" across the country.
Such a move, according to the NBSSI, was necessary to help breed competition among the country's financial institutions and thus lower lending rates "for most micro, small and medium enterprises to have access to financial services.”
The Director of NBSSI in charge of Administration and Human Resource, Mr John Agbenorko, made the call when he called at the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) to share the board's view on the recent story published in the GRAPHIC BUSINESS of March 29, 2011 headlined "CID, BoG in a 'tango' over licensing of money lenders."

Arthur Amissah is Governor of the BoG

He said the board was of the view that while monitoring mechanisms were required to enable the lenders operate effectively and efficiency "it was strategically important to encourage their proliferation across the country."
"MSMEs form a bulk and constitute a critical driving force of the national economy", Mr Agbenorko observed, adding that "easy access to cheaper credit would help them survive and grow to generate employment and wealth towards strengthening the economy."
The GRAPHIC BUSINESS last week reported of how the CID was still in the business of licensing money lenders in the country "to fill a void" created by the inability of the mandated body, the Bank of Ghana to carry out that function under the Money Lenders Act, 2008, Act 774.
That, he described, as a healthy complementary role and noted that the NBSSIs "wished the parties involved viewed it as such."
Barely a week after the publication of the story, the BoG has initiated moves to formulate guidelines towards the full regulation of the microfinance sector under which the money lenders fall.
 Mr Agbenorko said such a move was "gratifying" but "care should be taken not to stifle the springing up of the money lenders."

Jovida makes strides in USA market

Being denied access to a visa to enable you travel to a country of choice can be down-heartening and frustrating to most people especially the business folks in the country. But when Vida Ayorkor Anang stumbled on such a ‘sudden normality’, it opened up her eyes instead. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare writes.

BUSINESS activities and trips to the USA for Vida Ayorkor Anang, the brain behind Jovida Exclusive Fashions at Nungua in Accra were brisk as usual until sometime in 2005 when the US embassy in the country suddenlly wrapped her up in an emotional trauma.
Before that trauma, which she said “was quite a set back for the business”, she was successfully sewing, packaging and exporting products from her Jovida’s Exclusive Fashions to the States for her numerous black Amerian fashion-freak customers.
The door to the international market for her products opened as far  back in 1998 following an opportunity afforded her through her membership with the GAWE to attend and exhibit at the first Global International Women's Conference held in Adisa Ababa, Ethiopia. "That conference really opened the international door for my business," Madam Anang recollected amidst smiles.
Her second international business gate opened two years after. "That was when I got another opportunity to participate in the second edition of the conference in Miami in USA. I networked at the conference, stayed for an extra two months and when I returned, I started taking orders and doing business with the people I met while at the conference."
“I also had the opportunity to show my products at the Drug Enforcement Agency during one of their black month’s celebrations. So, between 2000 and 2005, I kept traveling to the USA; sending crafts to my US based customers," Madam Anang recounted.
That international door which opened far Vida Anang’s Jovida Exclusive Fashions way back in Ethiopia in latter 1998, however, got shut right here in Ghana in 2005.

When the boat rocked
On the afternoon of May 5, 2005, Madam Anang drove to the US embassy here in Accra, walked in, and requested to renew her visa “so that I could travel to the US to do some business.”
But the visa officer at the embassy looked her in the face and said “no Madam. I’m sorry we can’t renew your visa any more.”
And since then, 05-05-05 has always remained in the history books of Madam Anang; the shocking day that opened her eyes to new realities right here in Ghana.
“That day, the 05  05 05, how can I forget it? I can never forget that day,” were her comments when the GRAPHIC BUSINESS asked her of the date.
“That was really a shock to me and a set back for the business because I had  built my footing along that line; manufacturing in Ghana and exporting them for sale in the States.”
According to her she has since not attempted any visa renewals "because I have realised that I don't have to travel outside before I do business with my foreign based customers. So, what next?
In this mobile telephony era coupled with the increasing proliferation of social networking sites courtesy the Internet, travelling for business transactions is in most cases relegated to a second option.
With all these assets at your finger tips of most people throughout the globe, doing business with people across international boundaries is actually made less hectic - once you have their contacts and a reliable delivery system.  But the issue relies heavily on trust. And that too must be cutivated by the supply, nurtured by both sides, and be consistently renewed.
So, when Madam Anang recovered from the US embassy's trauma, she quickly switched to deliverying on orders received via phone and other modern powered facilities to replace the physical delivery the embassy indirectly denied her of.
But that too was not easy. "I started making calls to people I had met asking them to place deposits for orders and get them delivered through shipment but people are not comfortable with that. So, I had to  develop that trust in them that once Jovida received their deposits and specified orders, Jovida would supply accordingly.
According to her, she had to use "the little money that we had to produce and ship to to some who have not even deposited but ordered" as she sought to develop and nurture the needed trust between her and the out of sight customers.
Six years now, Madam Anang said her Jovida’s Exclusive Fashions has been engaging in this produce and ship based on orders received to cater for her international customers while strategising to capture the local ones.
"We have actually shipped some products in  January to be used for the black history month's celebrations”,  Madam Anang said.

The birth of Jovida
"Jovida was actually borned in Nigeria," she recollected. Accrding to her after acquiring a three-year classroom skills and knowledge in dress making at Social Advance Institute, she travelled to Nigeria and while thee "I set up my fashion company after spending six years with Aisha Mohammed Fabrics in Kaduna State."

Vida Anang recounts the birth of Jovida fashions

But no place sweet like home as  a visit to Ghana  saw Madam Anang saw Jovida Exclusive Fashions packing bag and baggages back home. "I paid a visit to Ghana and saw that it was actually better to come back home and continue with my business," she memorised.
No business road in Ghana and Africa at large has ever been smooth. Almost every renowned business fellow that you see worldwide has a rough yesterday behind what one may perhaps  describe as his/her smooth today.
The case  of Madam Anang was not quite different. According to her she started working from "a porch in a house at Nungua  but things later improved and I subsequently acquired a kiosk at at Nungua along Bank Road. By then, I had only two apprentices who together, we sewed dresses as and when people brought their materials."

A cry so loud
The cry of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country for financial institutions' assistance has been far so loud but is yet to receive any serious attention.
Madam Anang has added her voice to such a cry. "We SMEs form a large per cent of the economy. We employ a lot of people and pay a lot of taxes to the state. So, I'm appealing to the financial institutions in this country to open up their doors especially to women in business. Women are so unique that if you give us anything we multiple it; give us sperm, we give you children, give us foodstuffs, we give you food, give us money and we would give create more jobs for the economy. The banks and other financial institutions  should give us tailor made products rather than lumping us together," she pleaded.

Giving back to community
In the near future, Madam Vida Anang said she wants to come up with something in a nature of  an NGO that would train less priviledged girls in trade and subsequently get them employed. She also hopes to expand and strenghthen her present source of funding for Jovida, and venture into an estate property by construting more houses for rent and lease.

Vida Anang with one of her apprentices in the shop

On GAWE, she said "it is an eye opener. It taught me how to do bookkeeping" and thus called on her colleague business women to adopt the practice of keeping records on their daily transactions.
And for the weekend loving folks, Madam Vida advice is "whatever money that we get, let's try to save it. Let us cultivate the habit of saving for tomorrow and should not see pretty things, funeral dress, new shoes and the rest.    Vida is on vigonda@hotmail.com

In our next entrepreneur, we would look at Ms Sharon Gboney came up with Awesome Engels, a beads, hats and events and planing promotions company in Accra.

WHO CONTROLS MONEY LENDERS? As MASLOC enters the fray

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said it is ready to license, regulate and supervise the activities of microfinance institutions in the country. But even before the BoG issues guidelines on regulations, the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) has jumped into the fray to question the mandate of the central bank to regulate and superve activities of money lenders. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare reports

THE Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) of the Office of the President has questioned the legitimacy of the BoG's mandate over its proposed supervision and regulation of money lenders in the country.

Front view of MASLOC's head office in Accra

Ms Bertha Ansah-Djan, the Chief Executive Officer of the MASLOC said at a stakeholder meeting organised by the BoG to present its proposed guidelines for the sector that the MASLOC was “a bit confused as to where the BoG is coming from” with regards to the supervision and regulations of the lenders.
According to Madam Ansah-Djan, MASLOC “unlends its funds to these institutions and by extension  should be the ones to regulate and supervise their activities to ensure optimal performance and subsequent refund of our funds.”
She said MASLOC’s policy document states among other things that the centre “was the apex body of the microfinance institutions in the country” and should therefore regulate and supervise their activities in the country.
  But the Assistant Director of the Banking and Supervision  Department of the BoG, Mr Franklin Belnye said it was “the BoG’s duty to regulate the activities of these microfinance institutions,” adding that the BoG  had “no doubt that what it was doing (framing up modalities towards regulating and supervising their activities in the coming months) was appropriate to our mandate.”
He however noted that the BoG might have to engage the MASLOC on “a one-on-one discussion on the matter" adding that nothing stopped MASLOC from supervising their activities once it is the body that unlends to most of them.
"But when it comes to regulation, it is the BoG that should do that,” Mr Belnye noted.
  According to him, the BoG had actually dedicated a unit within it tasked with the responsibility of regulating the microfinance sector should the measures being formulated were finalised.

Bertha Ansah-Djan says the MASLOC "is a bit confuse about where the BoG is coming from."

The MASLOC CEO later told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on phone that MASLOC would be pushing for the mandate from the BoG to enable it monitor and supervise the activities of the microfinance institutions while the Central Bank concentrated on the issuance of regulations to guide the sector.
“MASLOC would want the BoG to regulate the sector; come out with the appropriate guidelines on what it takes to be a microfinance institution in Ghana. But when it comes to monitoring of their operations and all other things, allow it to the various associations (money lenders association, MASLOC and the rest) to handle.”  
According to Madam Ansah-Djan MASLOC would be pushing for what "our policy document mandate’s us to be; be the apex body of microfinance institutions in the country and subsequently supervise their activities.”
The Bank of Ghana had earlier admitted that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service’s continued licensing of money lenders in the country was illegal but added that it’s (BoG’s) lack of the needed structures to regulate the sector had caused it to “turn a blind eye on” the CID’s activities.
Although the CID did not claim authority over the licensing of the money lenders, it said its continuous licensing of the lenders was “to fill a void” created by the BoG’s unavailable modalities to license the lenders.
Money lenders, microfinance institutions and ‘susu’ collectors are meanwhile beginning to hive a sigh of relieve following the Central Bank’s renewed efforts towards taking over full licensing, supervision, and regulations of their activities.
In a document titled “Guidelines for Regulating Microfinance Institutions in Ghana”, the BoG said it was mandated to protect "innocent patrons of microfinance institutions from loss of their hard earned savings while recognising the role of the mini-savings  and loans companies as well as credit providers in ensuring an all inclusive financial and orderly development of the country’s credit delivery system."
In line with these intentions, the regulator of the country's financial sector said the regulations captured in the said document were meant “to provide for orderly development of the Microfinance sector, pending the passage of a Microfinance Act in the near future." The said draft document categorised Microfinance operations into two tiers, two and three.
Tier two institutions, it said would include “Susu Companies, financial NGOs, money lenders and other companies engaged in “financial services” and must be wholly owned by nationals”.
These companies, it added must have a minimum capital base of GH¢100,000, accept deposits not exceeding GH¢10,000 per customer per transaction and have their license renewed annually with a revisable fee of GH¢200.
Those of tier three would also comprise of individual susu collectors mandated by the BoG's regulatory framework to belong to "an association such as the Susu Collectors Association with those associations belonging to tier three institutions.” The minimum capital requirement of tier three institutions according to the document would be  GH¢10,000 for starters.
The BoG’s Banking and Supervision department is currently hoping to have those modalities and regulations adopted and passed by its board, hopefully this month to enable its take in licensing, regulating and supervising the activities of microfinance institutions in the country.
And once that is done, the BoG said "all persons and institutions involved in microfinance operations would be given a maximum period of six months from the date of publication of a notice to comply with the contents of this guideline or cease operations."
Some of the representatives at the meeting were of the  view that the BoG regulating their activities would help categorise the various microfinance institutions into their respective divisions that they belong.
According to them most prospective microfinance institutions in the country whose activities are outside that of money lenders were “initially going for money lenders’ licenses from the CID to enable them operate”, a situation they believed would ceas should the BoG take over full licensing and regulation of their sector.

High commodity prices causing ripples

Consistent pulll ups in prices of key commodities in the international commodity market has generated a lot of heat for individuals, businesses and nations worldwide. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare looks at how Unilever Ghana, the country unit of Global Unilever is surviving in that global commodity price surge.

MOST nations, business institutions and private individuals in the world over have had to adjust their public expenditure,  re-set or missed set goals or tightened up the family’s budget in response to the sudden but persisting global commodity price hikes in the world scenes.
This has caused a lot concern and headache to most business gurus, companies and nations as well.
"Seeing commodity prices go back to the stages they attained in 2008  is really a major cause for concern," Mr David Mureithi, Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, which now serves as head office of Unilever West Africa's productions ( excluding those of Nigeria) told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview on the current mounting commodty prices.
Prices of cocoa, a key source of raw material for most manufactyuring companies started pulling up way back in early October to close the year at well over $3,000.
The commodity currently sells at (today's price) and is promoising to continue hiking on the back of the political standoff in the Cote d'Iviore, the world's leading producer of the crop. The tension subsequetly led to the placing of a ban on export of the crop by Alhassan Outarran, a claimant to the Ivorian political seat causing the prices to escalate even further.
Crude oil prices are also escalating and are likely to continue having been fueled by the tensions in some of the major producing countries including the current unrest in Libya, a major producer and exporter.
For the past six months, palm oil (a key ingredient in soap and detergents manufacturing) also soared up by 60 per cent to currentlly sell at about $1,400 per tonne.
These hikes, higher than the historic 2008 price surges coming in the midst of economic, social and political unrest in key commodity exporting countries have raised fear among the business community that the situation may run deep into the year.
Refering to the 60 per cent stretch in palm oil prices within six months, Mr Mureithi said this meant a 60 per cent rise in cost of manufacturing for companies that depend heavily on the product for their manufacturing and other business related activities.
He said "palm oil is the key raw  material in Unilever's productions, comprising of more than 50 per cent in most of our products. So,  its 60 per cent price hike within the last six months meant virtually 30 per cent rise in our production cost just within six months."
That is not the only cost increase, Mr Mureithi noted adding that "a lot of the company’s packaging is done from petroleum diravatives and that goes to oil. All these are having a major impact on cost of production for companies and we at Unilever as well."

David Mureithi, MD, Unilever Ghana

But not all companies the world over are at the receiving end of this commodity price pull ups. Raw material suppling companies are of course reaping in great fortunes from the situation and are perhaps hoping for  a continuation of the surge.
In most cases, the heat generated by rising cost of production within companies is normally passed onto the final consumers of those products. The story is not different in this present instance.
Prices of most products in the country for instance have been mounting since the begining of the year  resulting from these persisting commodity price hikes and other prodution cost related factors.
  The on-shelf prices of Unilever products also went up "quite substantially", a situation the Unilever Ghana MD contended "was having an impact on the consumers' ability to buy more."
As demand for most key commodities in most of the emerging economies such as China, India, South Africa and the likes continue to increase coupled with low supply resulting from poor harvests, natural disaters among others, soaring prices of commodities can be assured to stretch well into mid year or even end of 2011.
And as that continues, raw material consuming companies would have to continue strategising; including possibly switching to substitutes to help avoid the overall wrath of these hikes.
But Mr Mureithi says "it is not that easy to switch to substitutes becasue they are readilly not available. And even in this instance, prices of palm oil (the company's key raw material) and its substitutes have all been soaring."
To him the present "global commodity surge is indeed a challenge, but not one that would draw the (Unilever's) business back."
Unilever Ghana Limited this year promised a six per cent growth leap in its 2011 growth after recording a 19 per cent growth rate in the previous year.
Mr Mureithi thus said the company was now aiming at consolidating those gains it achieved in the previous years.