Business
Ghanaian entrepreneurs put their best foot forward
Though government is now starting to talk the talk on helping business, it has yet to put local manufacturers in its procurement policies. It was about the best endorsement Tonyi Senayah, the founder of Horseman Shoes, could have hoped for. Mid-way through his 90-minute state of the nation address to parliament in February, President John Dramani Mahama started talking about Senayah’s shoes.
Starting his company in 2009 by importing shoes from La Paz, Bolivia, Senayah went on to design his own shoes and to train young people in his home town of Kumasi to make shoes. “And, Mr Speaker,” Mahama continued, “they are very nice, very comfortable shoes. In fact, I am wearing a pair right now.”
Since then Senayah’s shoes have become a flagship for the government’s Made in Ghana campaign. In April, 30-year-old Senayah will open his first shop in Accra and is setting his sights on contributing to the local and export market: “It is imperative for us as manufacturers to up our game in terms of improving the quality of our products and services,” he says. “We need to meet world standards.”
Despite the presidential publicity, Senayah has been openly critical of the government’s failures on power and public services. Most of all, he wants the government to get serious about buying from Ghanaian manufacturers. If government insists that the hundreds of thousands of shoes that state agencies buy must be made in Ghana, it would transform the economics of local manufacturing, says Senayah.
It’s the same message from Kate Quartey-Papafio, chief executive of Reroy Cables, the main supplier of locally made cables to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), GRIDCo and the Volta River Authority, the three main electricity companies in the country. Reroy started in the late 1980s by importing from British Insulated Callender’s Cables and then went into semi-finished products and set up its own manufacturing plant in 2007.
Quartey-Papafio is gearing up for higher demand as the economy bounces back: “We’re looking at making other components and accessories. Now is the time to build our capacity.” But, like Senayah, she wants government to prioritise the buying of locally made products: “ECG should put us in their planning … tell us what they need for the next five years.”
Both Senayah and Quartey-Papafio attended a special meeting of local companies convened by President Mahama at Peduase Lodge and made clear what needs to be fixed. “Interest rates and the cost of borrowing, late payments [by state agencies] and access to foreign exchange,” Quartey-Papafio reels off a list of the priorities. Reroy already exports to Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. Furthermorre, Quartey-Papafio plans to expand the company’s product range and sell to other regions.
