Women have been very vociferous lately in the campaign to encourage women to embrace the concept of agribusiness in Ghana.
From all indications, the core of the problem has been the need for women to actively involve in the production process line, through value addition to our numerous Agriculture products.
Value addition has to do with the preservation and processing of food for the local and international market.
One such advocator is Nana Adjoa Sifa, the Chief Executive Officer of Gazukuza, a social enterprise with special interest in African women in agribusiness.
Nana Adjoa Sifa is a global shaper at the World Economic Forum and a regular speaker at higher level panel meetings. She has been a panelists at the recent G20 conference in Germany, African Union’s Gender Empowerment Summit, AU-EU meetings in the Netherlands and CAADP meetings. Her work has attracted recognition from both local and international Media and she has been awarded by the JCI as an outstanding young person in Ghana.
Adjoa Sifa is of the view that women participation in the production line can easily transform Ghana’s ambling agric sector in no time.
In the past, women were relegated to the back in the agriculture field but constant sensitization has created an enabling environment for women to take a full swing in turning the lives of their families round through agribusiness.
Miss Sifa elucidated that land acquisition and rightful ownership of farmlands hinders women in the African continent and therefore affects the livelihood of most women in communities.
She hence stressed the need for women to capitalize on the numerous opportunities that exist in the agriculture value chain addition.
She has already pledged her support and unflinching desire to continue mentoring and coaching women to be agrienprenuers in the long run.
According to her empowering women in the agribusiness line can help position the country to be self -reliance and strong economic growth since women constitute the larger population in the country.
Through this, her organization has initiated a programme called Ignite also known as African Women in Agribusiness Initiative with funding to bail out women in agrienprenuer.
The funds, she said would serve as a vehicle for mobilizing the needful materials to keep them in business in the long run.
She asserted that women play significant roles in agriculture transformation but their activities are not always acknowledged by society. She said, when women are adequately trained, mentored and resources it might end post-harvest losses bedeviling the country on annual bases.Women should concentrate on developing a mechanism to better understand the operation of agribusiness, she added.
Ms Sifa believes that Agribusiness is the only economic sector that can address most of the pressing problems in Africa such as food insecurity, poverty, hunger and unemployment
Ms Sifa said there is therefore an urgent need for government and stakeholders to ensure effective coordination among relevant institutions to give special attention to women agriprenuers and encouraged young women to take advantage of the Ignite initiative to build game-changing Agribusiness.
