A women’s Business consultant, Alice Ama Darko has disclosed that just about 15% to 25% of Ghanaian women entrepreneurs make use of the internet in their day-to-day business promotions and dealings.
The consultant said this in Takoradi during a women entrepreneurs forum held to assess the Covid-19 impact on their businesses and opportunities for them in the oil and gas sector.
Speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of the forum, Alice Ama Darko of Cirelo Enterprise Consult said the low usage of the internet by women entrepreneurs affected their businesses due to the COVID-19 restrictions, therefore, encouraged women to build their capacities in the use of social media.
“With the advent of digitization in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for businesses to incorporate social media tools and information technology into their business operations, so that they will be able to do business and take advantage of it for trade and other business relations. That is the only way that they can be on top of their business and then be in the flow with the time because it is very important.”
“I know that businesses are constrained especially women-led enterprises have constrained in the use of some of these internet tools such as the use of zoom and other things. So they are not able to participate in their numbers. In fact, the training that we held came out that just about 25 percent of women participate in the use of social media platforms for their business which is woefully inadequate. So there is the need for women to build a capacity to enable them to use some of these ICT tools in the business,“ she said.
An entrepreneur, Rita Akushika Diaba, CEO of Yessli Ice told Citi News she is trying to revive her business through social media after it was hard hit by COVID-19.
“With the coming of COVID-19, it has really affected us right from the initial stages with the ban on the social gathering. We use to attend functions with our products, events, weddings, and others, so if there is a ban what happens? That means we are not able to sell. Again people had the perception that because of COVID if they take something ice or something cold their chances of getting this dangerous virus are very high.”
“So the patronage was zero, and before the ban, we had quite a number of programmes that we were supposed to attend, which we prepared adequately for. At the end of the day, most of such products have to go to the orphanage, some have to be given out or throw away which was a huge cost”, she said.
Rita further said the losses pushed her to review their marketing approach including resorting to social media marketing.
“We had to go back to our drawing board. The fact that there is COVID doesn’t mean that business should come to an end. So we thought over it and came out with products that can help boost the immune system. We introduced a couple of drinks which are very high in vitamin c and all that. It has been good and yes we are producing, but how do you get people to know about your product? That is when social media marketing came on board and we make use of it and by the grace of God we are picking up.”
A Programmes Officer at the Friends of the Nation, Nana Afua who facilitated the women’s workshop said they are committed to supporting women to make profits in the face of the pandemic as well as expand to the petroleum sector.
“This programmes aimed at empowering women to participate in the oil and gas industry and before this program we had already taken them through a series of training. One of it was that we brought Petroleum Commission down here to take them through the local content policy. So this one we really wanted to look at their participation, what is making them not able to participate in it? What capacity building they need to be able to participate in the oil and gas industry.”
The opportunities for women entrepreneurs and community leaders programme was supported by Oxfam, Norad and Centre for Public Interest Law, CEPIL, but facilitated by Friends of the Nation.