Investing Locally to Improve Production When Kofi Gyamfi left Ghana to study in the United States at age 18, few would have thought that he would return to the city of Tamale nearly 20 years later to start his own business. “I earned a graduate degree in economics and philosophy at Duke University in North Carolina, but I was always intrigued by business ownership,” Gyamfi said. Having successfully run his own supermarket for many years in the U.S., Gyamfi longed to use his business skills in Ghana. “Ghana is a tough business environment and when many Ghanaians living abroad see the difficulties, they usually decide not to return home,” he said. Knowing the challenges, he researched the Ghanaian market for two years before deciding to invest his life’s saving– but his decision to focus on guinea fowl processing was more by chance than design.
“I showed up on market days in Tamale and Bolgatanga and soon many farmers knew that I was buying fowl,” said Gyamfi. His interest in buying significantly increased farmers’ attempts to establish commercial guinea fowl farming in the region, but the harsh climate meant a high mortality rate for the young chicks, or keets. This led Gyamfi to become involved in production issues but he soon discovered that to be successful, he needed to build partnerships.
A guinea fowl processor in Tamale increases incomes for local farmers by purchasing large quantities of
While standing in line at an Accra post office, Gyamfi overheard a woman speaking on her mobile phone, attempting to purchase large quantities of guinea fowl to barbeque for a celebration. Listening to her conversation, he realized that while many enjoyed eating the speckled native bird, it was not always readily accessible in larger cities such as Accra.
He has gained expertise in guinea fowl production by attending workshops in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal, and has even joined forces with the northern Guinea Fowl Value Chain. Nonetheless, his greatest challenge is in marketing his product. In response to this, GTZ (the German Sustainable Development Organization) offered to help organize a guinea fowl trade show. “GTZ knows that by helping me, they can help the farmers ... through me, farmers now have a reliable buyer for their guinea fowl.
their birds.
Within one year of his decision, Gyamfi managed to set up “Gee,” a state-of-the-art processing plant. He built a large pen for newly arrived fowl, several areas for processing, two cold storage areas, and his most prized piece of equipment, a blast freezer. All alone, he received technical support form Dr. Gabriel Teye of the University of Development Studies.
As a result, he contacted Dr. N. Karbo and others of the Animal Research Institute (ARI). Researcher Franklin Avornyo of ARI explained that “By using incubators and the appropriate medication we were able to increase the keets’ survival rate.” ARI then sells these healthy keets to farmers who can then choose to sell the mature fowl to Gyamfi or other buyers.