USAID supports three entrepreneurs

By Benson AFFUL

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported the business plans of three entrepreneurs with a sum of US$100,000 each through the African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM).

The beneficiaries of the grant were Gonja Meat Company, an agribusiness engaged in the processing and sale of fresh meat; Sardis Enterprises International; and Viable Vision Industries Ghana Limited, a commercial mushroom farm.

The Chief Executive Officer, Gonja Meat Company, Alex Osei-Kwame, said the grant will be used to produce high-quality and affordable meats from locally-raised livestock, which will be processed in its abattoir in Kumasi and sold through its sanitary outlet stores.

“Sardis will establish a strong brand for the Ashanti line of produce, particularly its organic pineapple, and expand production and export from approximately 4,900 to 42,000 pineapples per month in 2013,” Chief Executive Officer, Micheal Griffin told the B&FT in an interview.

Viable Vision plans to use its grant to set up centres and support programmes to train small-scale mushroom producers and hobby growers.

Andrew Karas, acting USAID/ Ghana Mission Director, said ADM is one of the few public-private initiatives to harness the knowledge and resources of the U.S.-based African diasporas and other entrepreneurs to address economic opportunity by increasing access to capital for small-scale and medium-sized enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa.

He said USAID and other development leaders believe that the fight against poverty in Africa is largely a fight against unemployment.

“Establishing innovative, sustainable business initiatives and promoting entrepreneurship generate jobs and capital, therefore creating the potential to improve the fortunes of generations to come,” he said.
USAID Administrator, Rajiv Shah, said: “The ADM will strengthen and help satisfy demand for locally-produced products and services.

“This business will buy, sell and hire from within the communities they serve, putting money into the local economy, building local capacity and fuelling broad-based economic development.”

Ambassador Erieka Bennett, Head of Mission for the African Union (AU) Diaspora African Forum, said he was delighted to host the second reception to honour the winners of the award at the W.E.B Dubois Centre in Accra.

ADM is jointly funded by USAID, the Western Union Company, and the Western Union Foundation. Other contributing partners include Ecobank, African Capacity Building Foundation, George Washington University Centre for International Business Education and Research, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the US Department of State, and Irv Barr Management.

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