Handicraft ‘journalism’

- The story of a chief’s wife

She trained as a media practitioner at the Ghana Institute of Journalism and never wanted to become a ‘handcrafter’. Yet, her fortuitous contact with the sector ushered her into a lifetime job. Ama Amankwah Baafi reports


Fiasi African Arts and Craft Home is located at Hohoe in the Volta Region that deals in batik, tie and dye fabrics and garments. The outfit also trains others.

An initiative of Madam Eunice Agbo, who originally resided in Tema, she was compelled to join her husband at Hohoe when he was installed a chief.

To support the family. Eunice learnt the trade and went straight into practice by dying old jeans for sale. She later added batik making when she acquired more capital. It was not long before the market picked up, making it appropriate to advertise for apprenticeship. It ws at this point Eunice registered Fiasi African Arts and Craft Home as a non-governmental organisation in 1998.

Madam Agbo told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that her application for a grant under the self-help project from a donor agency was successful, enabling her to put up a workshop to train apprentices.

However, soon after ainuaguration the enterprise ran into some challenges as most of the apprentices and people in the area only wanted the training for free without paying a token as a fee.

The journalist-turned entrepreneur did not give up but soldiered on and attended an export school organised by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and subsequently registered as a member of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the GEPA.

Her knowledge and skills acquisition paid off as she was able to open a handicraft shop at Wli Waterfalls in the Hohoe municipality, where she sells all the range of handicraft, including batik, tie and dye, beads, Bolga baskets, artifacts, drums and beauty accessories.

“I am always attracted to arts and crafts so I try to collect other crafts”.

Ms Ago prefers the use of local raw materials, particularly beads to imported ones as patronage for the former had proven encouraging.

Her combination of colours helps her patrons to make easy choices. “I was trained by a Canadian. She used to sit with me and we tried to blend the colours to see which ones will match and that is how I became perfect and make everything always beautiful.”

Production

Fiasi African and Craft Home employs five permanent staff. They buy the fabric from the market to create an original style that are not common.

On a usual production day, Madam Ago and her team design fabrics on a writing board, select colours and choose the right and appropriate stamps.

Although, according to her, the period of production depends on the number of colours chosen, at Fiasi they are able to produce about 12 yards with four hours. She has her own designs of beads as she widely reads books on beads production. “At times, i design to suit customer specification.”

“Sometimes I have something in mind, but it might not be the right season, so I put it off for the right time of the year”.

In production, she uses modern machinery for sewing but produces beads manually.

Accomplishment

Gradually making handicraft has become her path, she has never changed it and she feels lucky that handicraft came to her.

Eunice has trained over 100 people so far and attended so many trade fairs across the West African sub-region and is able to easily recollect fairs in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Dubai as some of the memorable ones that lived up to expectation.

She has no regrets for going into handicraft making since it was paying off and provides the much needed financial security.

“In all, I thank God for bringing me this far. I am not so rich but financially I am doing well. I am able to see my three girls through school. At Wli, I am putting up a four-storey building which will serve as a workshop for training, a store and other purposes”, she said.


GEPA relationship
She appreciates of the fact that the GEPA foots the bills of stands and freight her products to the destination of fairs worldwide. Likewise, the Ministry of Trade and Industry freight goods sometimes, while the AGI helps to acquire management and entrepreneural skills.

Challenges
According to Eunice, exhibitions are meant to showcase what one had to seek out for orders. “Actually what I really need is enough money to buy more raw materials to produce more”.

Apart from fairs, she also tries to send her products to neighbouring countries, especially Nigeria which has a bigger market but then it comes with several challenges. “Even under ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme there are so many barriers. Sometimes my goods delay and I am not able to make a lot of sales”, she added.

She appealed to financial other lending institutions to make lending terms flexible so small enterprises could take advantage.

Future
Fiasi African Arts and Craft Home has a vision to produce its own raw materials; produce beads and afterwards design and sell.

“I envisage employing and training thousands of people to be doing batiks to create jobs for themselves. I also want my daughter to go into labeling and packaging to enhance our products”.

She has plans to go into shea butter processing, stressing that small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana had the potential to contribute to economic growth and so must be given the necessary skill and financial support to be competitive.

To the next generation, particularly for those hoping to follow her footsteps, she encouraged them to give off their best in whatever venture they undertake.

She loves chatting with her children when she is not producing and also takes active part in church activities.

Eunice wants people who patronise her products to feel very special, beautiful and spirited.