A
baseline survey conducted by the Project indicated most of the vendors are skilled
in cooking dishes to feed majority of the population, but lacked managerial
skills to run their enterprises as a business.
The
Project therefore has the objective of building capacity and improving
livelihoods of operators in street food enterprises. It is a partnership between
the University of Copenhagen, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
(KNUST) and the Food Research Institute, funded by the Danish Development
Agency (DANIDA).
Some
selected food vendors in Kumasi have benefited from one week training in record
keeping, financial management and customer relationship as well as formation of
vendor associations to benefit from collective action.
“These
vendors are at the midpoint of the chain; they connect the producer to the
consumer, so once they are efficient with what they do, it means that they can
procure higher quantities and cost of production comes down, then the final
consumer benefits from higher quality and also affordable meal,” stressed James
Osei Mensah, a lecturer at the Department of Agric Economics at the KNUST and a
PhD student on the Project.
He
says the project has the goal of connecting players within the food value chain
– from the producer to the processor and to the final consumer.
Mr.
Osei Mensah observed this will ensure farmers easily identify their market as
the vendors absorb most of the locally grown crops.
The
beneficiary vendors are excited at the opportunity to learn.
“If
not for this we were ignorant of the work that we are doing…. Now I know how to
manage my business and I can even teach my colleagues what I’ve learnt,” said
Obeng Stephen of Alaska Fast Foods.
An
impact assessment of the training on the beneficiaries will inform scale-up of
the project to other areas.
Story
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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