All Pure Nature sells Ghana abroad Through sheabutter based cosmetics

All Pure Nature Limited, a local cosmetics enterprise in Osu, Accra, is selling Ghana’s image abroad through naturally handmade body, skin and hair care products from sheabutter. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare takes an insight into her business.




WHILE studying Political Science at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1998, young Ms Gladys Amorkor Commey, now the Chief Executive (CE) of All Pure Nature Limited in Osu, Accra, decided to nurture her passion for natural cosmetics into a door to door business.

She thus combined her studies with the trade of moving from one hall to the other, selling and marketing her handmade sheabutter packaged in a customised African Pot.

Her brand name then was Sheabutter in an African Pot.

But even before sellilng at the campus, Ms Commey said she had used her natural tallent and hobby in cosmetic makings to process some skin and body care products for her family.

That passion and hobby for naturally handmade cosmetics has lived on 14 years down the line. That flame has consequently flourished into cosmetics manufacturing enterprise that has its history deeply rooted in sheabutter.

The company currently suppliess bathing soaps to 15 hotels in the country, including the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra, exports some of her products to the European, American and African markets while selling some in the local market.

Ms Commey told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview that her All Pure Nature, which she founded and currently manages also does labelling of gifts for companies and in addtion to making candles from soybeans and bees wax.

In all these, Ms Commey said her All Pure Nature pays a resounding tribute and respect to all sheabutter women in the Northern, Upper West and East regions of the country “for their due deligence and hardwork in handpicking the sheanuts and processing them into butter for us as raw materials.”

Ms Gladys Commey, CEO, All Pure Nature limited

The company, she said has a women association in these regions who use traditional methods to process the sheanut into butter. That naturally processed butter then forms the core ingredient of her All Pure Nature’s cosmetics.

She mentioned bathing soaps, massage oils made from all natural ingredients like sheabutter, cocoa and coconut butter, facial and body care scrubs and washes, hair care soaps and beeswax candles as some of the products manufactured and distributed by the company. Those products, she said are marketed under the brand name, Pure Essence.



HOW ALL PURE NATURE SURVIVES

No business venture in Ghana survives without having to summount various challenges ranging from access to and cost of finance to lack of raw materials and motivation from the relevant financial and regulatory institutions.

But with real commitments from the businessmen and women powered by a passion to move on, most of the nation’s micro, small and medium enterprises are beginning to blossom into big time businesses that will forever stand the test of time. All Pure Nature is one of those.

Its CEO told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that the company has been riding on her enomous love for nature and zeal to market Ghana abroad through products made and raw materials that are only sourced from natural resources.

“I started making cosmetics from sheabutter when I was 19 years old and the challenges have always been there. But if you love something and do it with all your heart, then you can always expect God to help you succeed no matter how difficult that success may come with,
” Ms Commey said.

She also mentioned the niche market nature of her clientele base in the country and abroad as a key challenge that inhibits the progress of the All Pure Nature cosmetics enterprise. She said few Ghanaians are coming to terms with the fact that cosmetics made from artificial sythetics can, at times, be harmful to their health despite their luxurious looks and scents.

“We have a particular niche market and that is a challenge to us,” she said but added that her outfit was hopeful that “all Ghanaians will begin to aprreciate the distinct essence of natural cosmetics, particular, the Pure Essence brand to their skin and body care needs.

She also dared other hotels and recreational resorts in the country to take up the challenge of suppling their clients with natural cosmetics instead of the artificial ones which she said come with inherent challenges to their users.

With the dull patronage of indegenes to her Pure Essence cosmetics, Ms Commey said the company would focus on increasing supply to the foreign markes, particularly the USA, while consolidating its customer base in the country.

“We will be opening a new sales outlet at the Mariama Mall in the Airport City in June to make our products readily available to locals and tourists around that area,” she hinted. That outlet will add to the Osu sales outlet, making two the number of wholesale and retail shops that sells her company’s Pure Essence brand of cosmetics.



THE FUTURE DREAM OF MS COMMEY

Ms Commey’s All Pure Nature Limited has worn the hearts of many customers and business-minded institutions, both in and outside Ghana, with its distincted services and products sourced only from natural ingredients. That feat has consequently worn the company numerous international and local awards at the various stages of its operations.

Building on those laurels, Ms Commey says she sees “All Pure Nature in the near future growing from stregthen to strength,” an objective she rightly said will not be realised on a silver plate.

But with a wider dream of using her cosmetic brand name, Pure Essence, “to market Ghana to the outside world,” Ms Commey said such an ambition is acheivable, however gradual it may take.

That, she said will be acheived through concerted efforts by the company to gain more roots into the foreign markets by improving on the quality and style of its numerous sheabutter sourced products.

In addition, Ms Commey says she intends to create more employeable opportunities for the youth through adjoining businesses in her cosmetics manufacturing enterprise.

Currently, All Pure Nature Limited employs 12 people in its maufacturing plant aside the four groups of artisans it has engaged in sheabutter making, bamboo designs among others.



ADVISE TO THE YOUTH

Ms Commey is an Executive Board member of the Association of Ghana Industries’ cosmetics sector. And her advsie to the youth is simple: “Do what you love and turn your hobbies into businesses.

“For if you are happy with your business or whatever that you do for a living, then you will always be able to please your customers with it and the returns will benefit you and the business more,” she added.

But in doing all these, Ms Commey said “rely on God for guidance in whatever situation you find yourself in.”

Ms Commey is on info@allpurenature.com

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Interest rates to remain stable - Banks

Current developments in the financial sector suggest that the problems of limited funding from financial institutions to businesses could worsen into the year. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare writes




INTEREST rates charged on loans taken from commercial banks are unlikely to climb up despite the Bank of Ghana (BoG) pulling its policy rate up by a 100 per cent basis points.

That is as a result of most commercial banks’ less reliance on BoG funds to support their individual loan portfolios.

The president of the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB), Mr Asare Akuffo, who confirmed this to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview, however, added that the rates could firm up in the long run.

His comments trail an earlier decision by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the BoG to hike its policy rate from 12.50 per cent to 13.50 per cent, citing pressures on inflation and its long term effects on the economy.

The policy rate is the rate at which BoG lend cash to financial institutions in the country to enable them (the financial institutions) carry on with their respective financial intermediations with the business community and individuals.

A high policy rate, in most cases, always correspond to hiking cost of credit to businesses as more banks will very likely pass on the extra cost incurred on the BoG funds to their loan customers.

The hike in BoG’s policy rate came at the back of a harsher credit regime as revealed by the 2011 quarter four findings of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) Business Barometer Survey (BBS) which was released last month. As result, many business executives feared the difficulties in accessing credit could worsen as interest rates will quicken up.

The Executive Secretary of the AGI, Mr Seth Twum-Akwaboah said in an interview that the association was “not very happy with the BoG decision to increase the policy rate.”

He said his outfit rather expected the bank to have reduced the rate to ease the various credit issues facing businesses in the country

With the policy rate now hiked by a 100 basis points, Mr Twum-Akwaboah said anxiety among the business community that interest rates will go up could heighten as Central Bank funds to banks get costly.

For now, the AGI Executive Secretary said the association was “cautiously looking at BoG’s current action on cost of credit” saying that previous trends suggest that the policy rate has “some implications on the cost of and access to credit in the country.”

President of the GAB however said the situation in the country was different as a few banks relied on BoG funds to loan to prospective loan seekers.

He explained that while the base rate (the rates at which banks are supposed to charge all loan customers) of small banks are calculated base on the cost of their individual funds and a customer’s assessed risk, those of the bigger banks with large pool of funds is heavily influenced by treasury (T) bill rates.

Thus, should T-bill rates be pegged higher, bigger banks will very likely pull their base rates up vice versa.

Consequently, Mr Akuffo said “the base rates of some banks are unlikely to go up” in line with the upward adjustment of the policy rate.

“We would have to wait a little longer to see what the effect will be on the cost of borrowing to the banks first,” he said.

Unless the hike in the policy rate filters into the cost of bank’s funds, the GAB president said businesses can be expected to borrow at the current rates from their banks.

Mr Asare Akuffo, President, GAB

In the long run however, Mr Akuffo who doubles as the Managing Director of HFC Bank Limited and president of the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) said interest rates will pull up in response to the various economic challenges that an election year like this comes with.

“It is true that interest rates will go up but not in the short run. The rates may start going up after two or three months time when all these factors have started causing ripples to banks’ operations and cost of funds in particular,” he said.

Despite the unexpected short term rise in cost of credit to businesses as assured by the GAB president, the issue of banks charging higher rates to make astronomical profits still remains.

The AGI, the umbrella body of businesses in the country, last month accused the country’s financial sector of inefficiency; a trait the association said is heavily influencing the cost of credit to businesses nation-wide.

If banks were efficient, the association said they would have mobilised more funds at cheaper costs and lent them back to businesses at competitive rates.

Wet investor appetite greets gov’t’s 3-yr bond

The massive investor appetite that greeted government’s three year bond last Thursday could serve as welcoming news to the economy as it goes through an election year. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare writes





THE government last Thursday realised GH¢639 million in bids through the sale of its three year bond to both foreign and local investors.

The GH¢639 million is GH¢239 million above the government’s initial target of GH¢200 million prior to the auction last week. The raised funds are earmarked for infrastructural financing in the areas of road construction.

Despite the oversubscription to the tune of GH¢639 million, the Bank of Ghana (BoG), which acts for the government on the bond market, accepted only GH¢ 219 million.The accepted bids have been settled on Monday at a yield rate of 15 per cent per bid.

Out the GH¢ 639 million bids, GH¢355 million were from foreign investors giving proof of offshore investors’ confidence in the economy even as it goes through an election year.

The oversubscription of the bond further negates earlier fears by analysts and industry watchers that investor confidence in the economy had dwindled on the back of the cedi’s weak performance against its foreign counterparts.

Prior to Thursday’s auction, a senior rates strategist at Standard Chartered Bank Research for Africa based in London was quoted by Reuters as saying that the substantial exposure that investors have had to country’s economy may cause them to have less appetite for the offer.

Another Standard Chartered official said "I don't see offshore investors participating in a very big way, especially with the concerns for the currency.”

The oversubscription of the bond and the massive offshore investor confidence that the offer attracted on last Thursday has meanwhile calmed those fears.




Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, Governor, BoG

 Although anxiety over fiscal instability and government’s posture in an election is persisting, the acting Head of Treasury at BoG, Mr Adams Nyinaku told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on phone that the oversubscription shows that “investors still have a lot of confidence in the economy.

“We set out to raise just GH¢200 million but ended up having GH¢ 639 million at a rate of 14.5 to 22 per cent. That shows you how wet the economy is to investors.

“If investors, the foreigners in particular, do not have confidence in your economy, do you think they will express interest in your country’s bonds,” Mr Nyinaku asked.

He said his outfit was expecting the offer to be over subsbcribed due to the liquidity state of and investors’ keen interest the economy at the moment.

On the cedi’s performance vis-a-vis inesvetor confidence in the economy, the acting Head of BoG’s Treasury Department said “what is driving the depreciation of the cedi is the small inter-bank market and that is very insignificant to lower the confidence of investors in the country.”

He note that the rising foreign direct inbvestments was helping to stabilise the cedi’s performance against its foreign peers.

That notwithstanding, Mr Nyinaku said the country’s wet appetite for imports will continue to have a strain on the cedi’s performance.

He added that the oversubscription of the bond also shows that local investors are competing fiercely with their foreign counterparts. “The local investors came in their numbers for the bond and I think that is also good news to the economy,” he adedd.

Going forward, Mr Nyinaku said as far as liquidity continues to stay in the country government bonds will continue to be oversubscribed.

The government last year promised to intermittentedly issue bonds in the bond market on quarterly basis in a bid to raise more funds to support government expenditure. The Thursday aution is the first in the year and its oversubscription despite the fears that led to the auction could just motivate the government to auction more in the coming quarters.

Economy records 12 per cent growth

THE national economy recorded a 12 per cent growth rate in the third quarter of 2011.



The third quarter growth rate was mainly as a result of strong growth recorded in the industry sector of the economy.

The quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - a measure of the market value of goods and services produced in the third quarter - came down to GH¢6,912.3 million from the GH¢6,923.7 that was recorded in the second quarter of 2011.

The third quarter GDP represents a 0.2 per cent marginal decline from the second quarter’s value.

The acting Government Statistician, Dr Philomena Nyarko, said this in Accra last Wednesday at a press conference to simultaneously release the 2011 third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the economy and the December 2011 Producer Price Inflation (PPI) .

Dr Nyarko said the industry sector recorded the highest growth rate of 37.2 per cent followed by the services sector which grew by 5.8 per cent. The agriculture sector, she said, witnessed the lowest growth rate, growing by 5.2 per cent in the third quarter of last year.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister, Finance and Economic Planning

“Within the industry sector, the influence of crude oil pushed the growth of the mining and quarrying sub-sector to 263.1 per cent,” she added.

In the crops sub-sector, which includes cocoa, Dr Nyarko said growth in crops and livestock production rose by 10.2 and 3.6 per cent while that of forestry and fishing declined by 11 and 29.9 per cent respectively.

She said the transport and storage, information and communication, business and other services among others were the main contributors to the increased economic activity in the services sector.”

Strangely, however, the financial and insurance sub-sector witnessed negative growth in the period under review as against the booming growth rates the sub-sector has been recording in the previous quarters.

On the producer inflation for December 2011, Dr Nyarko said the rate declined to 15.19 per cent from the November 2011 rate of 17.94 per cent. The December producer inflation rate represents a 0.17 per cent dip from the November one.

Producer inflation measures the monthly average change in the factory gate prices received by producers for their respective goods and services produced in the country.

The mining and quarrying sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer inflation price change of 18.23 per cent followed by the manufacturing sector with a 17.23 per cent. The utilities sector recorded the lowest price change rate of 9.07 per cent.

TicketGhana.com launches e-ticket for events

PREMIER online ticket distribution company, TicketGhana.com, has partnered with Black Star Line (BSL) Ghana Limited/SOFT tribe Limited to introduce a re-loadable and re-usable electronic ticket (e-ticket) payment card to replace the cash-for-event tickets that is currently in place.


The e-ticket card, which will serve as a pass for event patrons to events in the country, is expected to revolutionise the ticket distribution industry in the country by offering prospective clients with a comprehensive one-stop solution for all their ticketing and computer-controlled event access requirements.

A statement jointly signed by the Executive Chairman of TicketGhana.com, Mr Herman Chinery-Hesse and the Chief Executive Officer of BSL/theSOFTtribe Limited, Mr Tetteh Antonio and released in Accra said the e-ticket would operate on BSL's secure Mx platform.

“This product provides programme organisers with a world-class solution that gives event patrons real time updates of upcoming events throughout Ghana, access to entry statistics from all gates at the event venue and reports on user demographics to aid targeted marketing as well as accounting,” the statement quoted the Executive Chairman of TicketGhana.com as saying.

Mr Herman Chinery-Hesse said the introduction of the e-ticket card would give customers greater convenience by allowing them to buy tickets and advanced tickets from multiple locations in the country.

The statement added that the facility was also expected to help eliminate the cost of ticket printings and the various frustrations that event patrons undergo in their bid to buy tickets for their favourite events.

It mentioned concerts, award ceremonies, film premieres, sports events, launch/release parties, fashion shows and conferences as some of the events that the e-ticket card would be used for.

Ghana in the midst of an ICT era

Despite Ghana’s pioneering role in Internet usage and Information Communication Technology (ICT) resources on the African continent, the county’s prospects from the sector are still more on paper than on the ground


NOT quite long, the usage of the Internet and other ICT infrastructure such as mobile phones, computers and the likes were seen as a preserve of the privileged few in society. It was seen as a plus to the basic necessities of life, such that the folk in the village saw little connection between a mobile phone, computer and Internet services to his/her daily jostlings for a living.


As a result, nobody cared to invest in ICT infrastructure and policies that will help widen Internet or mobile phone coverage to areas off the cities and towns, where usage of these things were fast gaining momentum.

Such perceptions and actions are, however, changing for the better; thanks to globalisation and the emergence of an ICT era which has linked individuals’ basic needs to luxurious assets world-wide.

The emergence and widespread patronage f ICT has made it possible for many people to communicate easily, access basic health, educational, and life changing information.

Its usage has lessen people’s over dependence on human resources, freed more hands for extra jobs, widen people’s access to quality information and aided many businesses to grow at enviable rates.

Unlike before, most farmers and manufacturers in the villages are spared the hustles of having to cart their produce to markets in search for buyers. With access to a mobile phone or a switch of a button, a farmer can now connect with buyers, find prices for his produce or even find treatment for the unfamiliar disease that had attacked the crops or animals.

All these go a long way to fast track the overall transformation of the national economy for the overall good of the populace

Yet not much is done to enable the country reap fully from this emerging resource.

Despite the much thwarted prospects of ICT resources and broadband (the system on which highest Internet services work) to the development of the national economy, only a little over ten per cent broadband penetration has so far been achieved as against the about 30 per cent Internet usage recorded in Kenya. That of Nigeria, Tanzania, Libya and most of the country’s peers in the African continent are enviable higher. And that is a shame to stakeholders in the country’s ICT sector, especially given the fact that Ghana is said to be one of the country’s in the continent to have pioneered Internet usage.

While addressing the national ICT Policy Review Forum in Accra mid last year, Dr Nii Narku Quaynor, Chairman of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) said the country’s Internet penetration on the African continent “is no longer competitive, ” conclusion he said was anchored by an earlier report released by the UN Secretary General's Multi Stakeholder Advisory Group on Internet Governance Forum (UN IGF MAG) on Internet usage in Africa.

Dr Quaynor explained that the country lost the competitive urge because of past policies which he said had succeeded in dragging the attention of the various stakeholders from the Internet or broadband infrastructure in general to the telecommunication industry. That, he added led to the closure of many Internet Service Providers in the country as telecommunication services picked up.

Discussants and panellists at last week’s Third GRAPHIC BUSINESS Forum in Accra held similar views. While admitting that the Internet usage or broadband penetration and economic development go hand in hand, some of the panellists said the country had failed to realise its goals from the Internet, a situation they said could pull development backward.

According to the Head of Vodafone Business Solutions, Mr Derek Appiah the world is on its “way to an ICT era where broadband penetration, data access and Internet usage will determine the pace at which a country will develop.”

That notwithstanding, Mr Appiah said Ghana was yet to catch-up with the speed at which an ICT powered economy develops.

For the guest speaker, Vice President John Dramani Mahama, “ICT affects every sector and industry of the economy.”

As a result, Mr Mahama called on the youth to take-up ICT courses that relate to their profession rather than learning Microsoft Word and the likes which will add less to your profession and life. “Use ICT as a plus to job,” he advised.

In all, one thing stood up key; the need for the country to integrate ICT into the newly found oil and gas industry so as to reap fully from the sector.

It thus requires the Ministry of Communication to totally review the nation’s ICT Policy to capture the strategies the country will adopt to integrate ICT into the sector without side-stepping the much talked about Local Content Policy.

Anything short of that will mean the oil and gas sector of the econonomy will equally ride the path on which the agriculture, industry and services sectors rode.