"I was about three years old when I lost my mum. I did not even know her,” says Rita Adibamoli Abarjawe, a 29-year-old single mother from the Kasena Nankana district of Ghana. “Growing up, I went through a lot of stress and financial crises. Sometimes even having food was a challenge.”
After her mum died, Rita was raised by her father and stepmother, both small-scale farmers. But as her father and stepmother grew older, they were unable to farm any longer and, at the age of 24, providing for the family became Rita’s responsibility. She also had a three-year-old daughter and her brother and his children to take care of.
To make ends meet, she began supporting her stepmother in producing shea butter. Making shea butter is a skill often passed on from generation to generation, and it is common for female farmers to make products for their own household use and income. For Rita, however, getting involved in this trade gave her the knowledge and impetus to start a new business, which proved an invaluable livelihood for her family.
Small business in soap-making
After learning the basics of the trade, Rita joined her local cooperative where she was selected to attend a training on soap-making organized by the Kasena Nankana Baobab Cooperative Union (KANBAOCU), a local forest products organisation that works in baobab and shea value chains. Funded by FAO’s Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), the training developed young people’s skills in making soap from shea and encouraged young women to go into entrepreneurship.
FFF helped KANBAOCU members improve the sustainability of the shea business by undertaking a climate risk assessment and implementing climate adaption activities, such as tree planting, tree-crop-livestock agroforestry systems, organic composting to improve soil fertility and moisture retention and diversification of crops to include drought-resistant varieties.
The soap-making training took place in the midst of the pandemic, but when the restrictions on movement began to ease, Rita and the other trainees started their own businesses. Rita began by selling to retail shops, households and in local markets once they reopened.
“The training helped me establish an income stream in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,’’ Rita says. “I joined the training because I needed to set myself up, support my family and pay for my child’s school fees.”
She had started her business with USD 68 of savings, but less than two months later, the young entrepreneur raked in a hefty profit.
“This demonstrates that there are business opportunities to be harnessed, especially for young women,” Rita says, “Now, my target is to produce quality shea and baobab-based cosmetic products for both the local and international markets.”
