WASHINGTON, DC, OCTOBER, 2006 —The entrepreneurial Africans who are recognized in the Believe Begin Become business competition are generating jobs, income, and opportunities for poor people. The program provides seed money for business start-up or expansion and other services. TechnoServe, which sponsors the competition in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Google Foundation, has been helping entrepreneurial men and women in the developing world to build businesses for 40 years.

TechnoServe provided the Case Foundation with profiles and photos of a few of the winners from Ghana. Special thanks to contributing writer Katherine Pasternak of TechnoServe.

Rita Asamoah, Kasdar Company Ltd.

Rita Asamoah was born in 1950 in Ghana. After completing her secondary schooling, Asamoah moved to London to join her family and continue her education. She graduated from Edmonton College and began working, primarily with import/export companies. Always an entrepreneur at heart, Asamoah decided to set up a cosmetic wholesale and retail business when she returned to Ghana in 1996. She has been running her business successfully ever since.

However, Asamoah always had a strong interest in processing and manufacturing, and she felt she would gain real satisfaction from transforming a raw material into a value-added product. She found just the right business opportunity with the Ghana Export Promotion Council. Processing and packaging desiccated fruit became her passion: "The fact that desiccated fruits are not well known to many Ghanaians as a healthy and convenient snack did not put me off. I want to make sure that every Ghanaian household includes desiccated fruits as part of a healthy diet," she says.

Asamoah has developed an innovative relationship with a large system of out-growers who are keen to turn their wastage into revenue. As a member of the first graduating class of Believe Begin Become, and as a strong advocate of the training she received, Asamoah plans to give back to the program by lending support to future participants through the alumni network as she builds the businesses she has always aspired to run.


Maxwell Hammond, Tilly's Farms

Maxwell Hammond grew up raising pigs alongside his father and saw opportunities to make it a more lucrative business by adding processing, packaging, and distribution. He decided to start his own business, called Tilly's Farms, with a vision to offer "the highest quality pork available, and therefore Ghana's pork of choice." This vision is reflected in the company's tag line, "Pork of the Town."

Hammond is a recent winner of TechnoServe's Believe Begin Become program. He will be investing his seed capital award to secure the new property and his business services award to ensure effective setup of the farm operations. Hammond recognizes that the market for pork products in Ghana is more limited than the market for other meats and poultry, as a significant percentage of Ghana's population is Muslim. He plans to conduct a focused marketing campaign in order to capture a large share of the market that does exist.


Joseph Tackie, Meaty Foods, Ltd.

Joseph Tackie's dream has always to been to have a company of his own. Now, as the overall winner of TechnoServe's Believe Begin Become business plan competition, Tackie feels he has reached an important turning point and is headed for sustainable success.

"The two most important aspects of my business are quality and innovation," said Tackie. He is the managing director of Meaty Foods Limited, a meat processing company in Accra, Ghana. "By quality and innovation I mean that the products I produce for individual retail, and restaurant and supermarket sales will gain market share because they achieve international quality standards and because of the unique packaging, product design, and product mixing we offer," he said.

For example, Tackie plans to introduce marinated chicken in several ready-to-cook, sealed flavor packages, an option not readily available in supermarkets or butcher shops in Accra. Tackie already had an executive MBA when he undertook the Believe Begin Become training program. He said the program challenged him and forced him to work out the crucial details of his business. This intense planning and the input of the professional trainers, consultants, and financial sector evaluators from the program have given him the input he needs to secure financing and achieve his growth objectives in the years to come.


Nicholas Vordzogbe, CitiWash Ltd.

Born in 1980 in the Volta region of Ghana, Nicholas Vordzogbe studied statistics and completed a higher national diploma. Before being selected as a winner in TechnoServe's Believe Begin Become business plan competition, Vordzogbe was working as a market research officer and professional car washer.

His experience in the car-washing business and his expertise in evaluating market data led him to his current entrepreneurial pursuit — launching a business called CitiWash Ltd., a high-tech, environmentally friendly carwash that will include both mobile and on-site service options. The TechnoServe award— $15,000 in seed capital, $10,000 in business services, and $3,800 in electronic business listings and advertising— will allow him to make some necessary initial investments and access a network of expert business advisors in the country.