Young female SME appeals for support to expand business

Amiwan Service Centre, a female-led enterprise in Wa, is in dire need of support to expand its production and present hope to many young people in the region and beyond through job opportunities.

The enterprise is into production and sale of cosmetics, body creams and detergents, shampoo, and other chemicals for hairdressing, among others. The business sources some of its materials including shea butter from the local economy, which also presented business opportunities for shea pickers and processors in Wa and surrounding communities.

Ms. Amina Haruna, aged about 32, the Manager of Amiwan Service made the appeal through an interview with the GNA in Wa. She appealed to the government and philanthropic organizations focused on supporting Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMSEs) to support her to expand her business. She indicated that getting the support to expand her business would enable her to engage more young people in the production and sale of the products.

Apart from the production of cosmetics, Amiwan Service Centre also operated a hairdressing salon in Wa to supplement the cosmetics production with funds. Due to the inadequate finances to establish a cosmetics production facility, Madam Haruna currently produces the cosmetics in the hairdressing salon, which she said was not convenient and she could not engage more hands in that business.

“I currently have sales agents in Accra, Tamale and Wenchi, so after production I send the products to them to sell and through that they are getting income. “If I had the support in the form of finance or other resources to establish a facility solely for the cosmetics production, I could have engaged more sales agents.

With that I could have also engaged young people in the production and packaging, and that would have served as a job opportunity for many young people in the region,” Ms. Haruna said. She added that expanding the business and increasing her production would also enable her source more raw materials, especially shea butter, which would increase the economic fortunes of the rural women engaged in shea picking and processing.

Ms. Haruna explained that she also trained young people in detergent making and said accessing the support to expand the business would enable her to train more young people in that business. Amiwan Service Centre also offered contractual services to both public and private-sector organisations as well as individuals in training people in detergent production and supply of detergents to organisations and agencies.

The enterprise had offered such services to the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP) and ActionAid Ghana (AAG) where it trained hundreds of people in detergent production.

Source: GNA