To increase productivity and sustainability among women in agribusiness, 13 women-led horticulture business owners have been trained and certified by HortiFresh through MDF West Africa to strengthen their capacity in the horticulture sector under the HortiFresh Access to Finance component in Accra.
The program was set up to build women capacity and strengthen them to be well-positioned and access funding, the Programme Manager of HortiFresh, Mrs Sheila Assibey-Yeboah mentioned.
The modules at which these women were coached for nine (9) months are business strategy, sales and marketing, human resource, business administration and financial management.
Highlighting the importance of capacity strengthening in the area of financial and business management, she stated that this capacity building will go a long way to position businesses in the horticulture sector for support from the financial sector and impact communities.
Talking about the program’s continuity, the Programme Manager said the lessons learnt from the first training would compel for an equally good selection and decision making for next year’s programme. She noted that next year would be better than this year based on the experiences gained.
She urged the women to use the knowledge gained from the training to transform and sustain their horticultural businesses to improve the horticulture sector.
The Lead Business Development Services of MDF West Africa, Susanne Roelofsen underscored the need for building women capacity as an advantage to capitalize on the opportunities presented in the horticulture sector in terms of processing and packaging to produce nutritious and healthy foods for the consumers.
She commended HortiFresh for the training and acknowledged the 13 women for their resilience in completing the nine (9) months journey of the programme.
According to her, the programme is a key milestone in getting women’s businesses ready to tap into opportunities available in the financial sector. She urged the women to strictly adhere to and implement the various elements of the programme in the day to day administration of the business.
“The programme has been very insightful and educative, it has been so intensive that they thought us so many things that have built our capacity and made our business resilience”, Dora Naana Amoah, the CEO of CARIS GOLD SERVICES said.
Speaking to Agric Today, Mrs Amoah said initially she could not perform some tasks like auditing but after the programme she could audit her accounts now but the training needs dedication and timing.
She explained that the training is a good opportunity for female agribusinesses to thrive because women need support in the agribusiness sector and such support will help in nurturing other women for national development.
She assured of good resilience business that is going to withstand the test of time and compliant.
Madam Marianne Titus Glover, the CEO of Anne’s Gardens added that the training has connected her business to many stakeholders to leverage on.
As a young woman entrepreneur what is most needed is grants to cushion the business instead of loans and more coaching programmes to monitor how the funds are been used.
