Finding success through determination

She resolved to work on her own and overcame obstacles to get to where she is. At the 22nd National Awards for Export Achievement 2011, held recently in Accra, her company “Ebenut Ghana” was given a special honourary award. Ama Amankwah Baafi had a chat with her and reports

When she returned to Ghana in 1998 with her family from the United Kingdom (UK), Mrs Paully Apea-Kubi had a dream to work on her own. Then, one of her aims was to have a flexible work schedule to be able care for her family, especially when her younger child was just four years.

Upon a visit to a friend at Dodowa in the Dangme West district of the Greater Accra Region she realised that mangoes were in season (June / July) but there seem to be no buyers. “In fact I saw one pregnant woman seated behind a heap of mangoes and until three o’clock in the afternoon no one asked how much they were selling, except some school children who tried to take some and she chased them about.”

She told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that she conceived the idea to do something about it. It was not until June 26, 1998, that a friend requested her to prepare a birthday cake with coconut flavor. After grating the coconut she dried in her oven and realised it had dried so beautifully white and crispy. She took the quantity needed but was left with more.



Her alliance with GEPA

She took the rest to the office of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) to find out if she can be assisted. She was received warmly and was told there was market for it in the United Kingdom but it would take some time because it had to be developed.

“In fact GEPA was the first institution that helped me do a business plan which by then was expensive. But their effort to help me get funds to start was not fruitful.”

She took the initiative to research on line for market. Eventually, she chanced upon the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the official development cooperation agency of the Government of Denmark which gave her GH₵400 equivalent then, and that was how “Ebenut Ghana” started.



Ebenut Ghana

The factory at its current site, Ghana Industrial Commercial Estate (GICEL) at Weija in the Ga West District began with a worker and just one mini drier, developed through the assistance of the Food Research Institute (FRI).

She doubled as the producer, distributor and sales person. Later, Ebenut signed contracts with ten confectionary companies. From an initial capacity of 25 kilogrammes (Kg) in a month, production shot up to half a tonne (500 kg).



Impact of Chinese imports

By 2002, Ebenut was producing two tonnes a month and so bought a big drier as well as increased its staff to 12. It was expanding until 2004 when these Chinese imports begun coming in and the women who hitherto kept vigil at confectionary companies for confections started going to china to bring in such products.

Consequently, she decided to diversify by drying pineapple, mangoes, banana and pawpaw. During that time the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) had been contracted by government to assist the sector so they helped look for market for my products. In 2007, through GTZ, Ebenut participated in fruit and logistics fair in Germany, where she had three customers from Italy, Switzerland and Germany who expressed interest in her work. Upon return, she began exporting.

Ebenut also dries vegetables like kontonmire, tomatoes, garden eggs, buma (green leafy vegetable and okra.

“We try to dry most of the things that are seasonal because we know that most our foods are very seasonal. We sell our goods at Koala, Shoprite and other notable supermarkets. All these foods if we had money to promote them will do well in the local market also.



At the factory / production

The raw materials, fruits and vegetables are weighed, sent to fresh fruit room, stuck them in plastic baskets and processors begin their work. After peeling the fruits spread and put in the drier. It important to note that here record taking is done seriously, including even the peeling.

After drying throughout the night, the products are put in containers, sorted out and packaged to customer preference.

Ebenut adhere to the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) standard, recognized as an international food safety program.

It works with 10 mango farmers in Dodowa and Akosombo, 10 pineapple (MD2) farmers in Bawjiase, 10 coconut farmers and 45 sugar loaf farmers in Ekumfi. The farmers are being assisted by the GTZ to certify them in organic and fair trade value chains that link producers, processors, traders, retailers and service providers from field to the consumer, in a way that all involved stakeholders benefit.



Her motivation

She has a passion for what she does. “I have a lot of ideas as to how to preserve our local meals and we have done a lot of research on that. I love my country but first of all as an entrepreneur I get my money, employ people, market Ghana and put it on the world map. I want to preserve what we call waste here and add value to it for export.” She tries to attend most exhibitions.



Major achievements

She received a special honourary award at the 22nd National Awards for Export Achievements 2011 held recently. In 2009, she was among 10 women in Africa selected for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD’s) second Empretec Women in Business Awards.

Again in 2006, at a fair in Senegal, Ebenut Ghana won the Best Packaged Product in West Africa. She has since been made the coordinator and occasionally entrepreneurs visit her factory for inspiration.

Funding is however a major challenge to expanding her business. She is sometimes compelled to depend on clients to pre-finance which she said is not helpful.



Future of Ebenut

The company has acquired a new site at Bawjiase seeking for financial breakthrough to develop into a modern factory. “We are looking for a good partner. If we move there we will be producing 15 tonnes monthly and which means workers are going to double.”

Meanwhile, Ebenut in collaboration with FRI and USAID’s West Africa Trade Hub have worked on the development of jollof rice and gari futo but need money to implement.

Ebenut normally takes on Senior High School graduates who stay on me for about two years to be able to save some money and then go back to school.

At the moment, two of such people are pursuing programmes in agri-business and administration at the University College of Winneba, University of Ghana, Legon and University of Development Studies and hope to return to the company.

It offers in-service HACCP training for those in the food industry. She is also a guest lecturer at the Food Processing Department of the University of Ghana. Students also get the chance to do practical internship at Ebenut.



Lessons learnt

She said most Ghanaian foods can be packaged and exported if we go by the standards; that is food safety aspects. Consumers in Europe are waiting to taste exotic food. She suggested the Ministry of Food and Agriculture can nurture people interested in the processing sector and assist them to achieve their dreams.

She appealed to government to institute an incubation fund to help potential entrepreneurs to turn their ventures into serious moneymakers. She added private-owned businesses may represent a big source of potential growth for the Ghanaian economy.



Her advice to women entrepreneurs or potential entrepreneurs

She said food processing has been in the country for some time; processing of koobi (salted fish) and other things but there have been new developments and new technologies.

Therefore, Ghana needs a lot of people to come into the industry which though capital intensive is lucrative. Yet, the person should have the flair for it because it is demanding.



Education background

She obtained secondary education at Oda Senior High School, proceeded to Accra Polytechnic to read a Catering and Institutional Management and then to Thomas Denby in Leeds, United Kingdom where she studied Hospitality.

She also has a certificate in Financial Management from Benchmark Capital Group.



Hobby

When she is not at the factory processing fruits and vegetables she exercises at the gym and likes to walk a lot. She is married with three children and loves spending time with them by visiting places of interest.