THE immediate past Vice President of the Association of Ghana Industries and Chief Executive Officer of SAMBA Foods, Mrs Leticia Osafo-Addo, has been adjudged the overall winner of the 2009 edition of the ‘Builders of the African Economy’ and presented her prize in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
She becomes the first Ghanaian to join the likes of Sudanese business mogul, Mo Ibrahim, Globacom Chief Executive, Dr Mike Adenuga Jnr, former Chief Executive Officer of MTN group, Phuthuma Nhleko, and Malian born Cheick Modibo Diarra, current chairman of Microsoft Africa, who have all won the award in the past since its inception.
The yearly award, instituted in 2006 by Colombe Marketing and Communication, an Abidjan–based communication and advertising consultancy, is an event which celebrates excellence and contributions made by Africa’s top businessmen and business women in their chosen fields aimed at improving their economy.
This year’s edition also saw the organisers profiling personalities, institutions, business and their owners, as well as award winners in English and French magazines.
The new addition, according to the organising committee, was to promote African businesses beyond the borders of the continent.
The award, which was in recognition of her continued promotion of agri-business and food packaging to meet international acceptance, according to the committee, was a test case for small and medium scale enterprises across the continent.
Mr Russel Lohore, a panel judge on the committee, indicated that although agri-business under the SMEs on the continent had witnessed setbacks owing to inadequate support from financial institutions, leading to the closure of several firms, which have now turned to trade and commerce, the case of SAMBA foods went to reiterate a point that investing in the sector would enhance African countries’ quest towards achieving a middle income status.
Sharing her thoughts on the award, Mrs Osafo-Addo told the Graphic Business that the government and policy makers should develop clear policies and programmes that would boost agri–business in the country.
SAMBA, which, according to her started as a small initiative, had grown into a medium-scale enterprise, and “this is a clear case that if a holistic support were extended to small scale enterprises, the country would make major inroads towards the attainment of the middle income status leaders are striving to achieve,” she said.
She regretted that successive governments had paid lip service to the sector, although the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and its stakeholders had in the past advocated that policy makers identified measures on how they wanted to develop the sector.
She admitted the journey had not been rosy, as recouping investment from manufacturing took more time than in trade and commerce.
“There were times when I thought of folding up and going into commerce, but determination to achieve my ultimate objective of making a case for the country’s agri-business sub-sector has kept me going, although monetary rewards were minimal,” she stated.
Mrs Osafo-Addo, who has in the past won the Danish Concept Award for SME Development, was also a winner of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIMG) awards in 2001, the coveted African Business Woman of the year award in 2005, as well as the Dutch Fellowship Award for quality assurance in the food processing enterprise in The Netherlands, among several other international awards.
The “tough–talking” woman, who is referred to as ‘Auntie Samba’ by most people, has also featured in business advocacy programmes in several media aimed at promoting agri-business and entrepreneurial development among the youth.
The professionally trained nurse turned entrepreneur, who was educated in Germany, holds a Master of Business Administration in Management Technology and Innovation from the Wangeningen Agricultural University in The Netherlands.
She also holds a diploma in assurance and marketing in food processing from the same university.
The one time board member of the Social Investment Fund currently serves as a member of the Advisory Panel of the African Guarantee Fund, the African Development Bank (ADB) and the International Finance Corporation based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mrs Osafo-Addo, a former student of the Technology Secondary School, now (KNUST SHS), has over the years mentored young women in tertiary institutions and training colleges across the country in food processing and preservation.
Her resolve to make a case for food processing and agri-business saw her serving as an immediate past vice president of the AGI, where she also spent time and resource trying to promote the growth of the industry through advocacy and the formulation of flexible policies aimed at improving growth in the small and medium-scale business sub-sector.
Recounting her challenging moments to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, she indicated that the lack of finance, subversion and diversion of loans, inadequate managerial skills and the lack of ready market for locally made products were some of the challenges that impeded the growth of local industries.
She noted that in spite of those challenges, the company rose above the storm and expanded until insufficient cash flow hit it following the failure of a government agency, their major client, to pay for goods supplied to it for almost two years, leading to a partial closure of the factory.
Mrs Osafo-Addo regretted that although successive administrations preached the gospel of private-public sector partnership, the same entities were doing very little to rescue agro-based companies that ran into problems.
The SAMBA CEO noted that the resuscitation of her factory from a long slumber should serve as a test case for small-scale businesses, and challenged managers of such entities to stand firm as they made strides to promote the economic development of agri-business.
She appealed to the government to provide regulations at the macro-level that would motivate financial institutions, which are the major financiers of business projects, to develop better relationships with the SMEs, thereby complementing their efforts at developing the country.
She also called for an intervention by the Ghana Standards Board, the Food and Drugs Board, the food science departments of universities and other stakeholders in order to make ‘Shito’, a pepper sauce, a national product that could be identified with Ghana when it was mentioned, just as Mercedes Benz is linked to Germany.
She paid glowing tributes to her staff, whose encouragement and selfless attitudes contributed to the company’s success since its rebound.
Mrs Osafo-Addo also dedicated the awards to the several women who had dominated the SME’s in the informal economy.
With the assistance of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, she said, the award would be presented to the First Lady, Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills, hoping that the award wolud serve as a motivation for other women entrepreneurs. GB
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