The ability to identify your hobby and translate it into a passion is one of the alternative ways of becoming self-reliant and a job creator, not a seeker. This week’s Inspiring Startups interacts with an enthused entrepreneur, Dr. Iddi Mohammed Faried, who despite being a trained doctor has been driven by his entrepreneurial zeal to venture into the food and beverage production space.
Iddi Mohammed Faried is a product of Prempeh College and studied to be a Doctor of Medical Laboratory Science at the University for Development Studies.
He is a co-founder of The Good Chef, a catering service in the Northern Region.
Motivation
For Faried, the idea of becoming an entrepreneur started during his time at university – after noticing how some of his colleagues were engaging in petty trading to finance their academics.
So, after graduating he thought it wise to start a business – leveraging the cooking skills he learned from his mother.
“Looking at the economic situation, I decided to motivate myself as a young, passionate graduate to translate my hobby into a serious business by preparing and selling wasawasa (a popular street-food in the Northern Region, prepared with dried yam-peel) in a well-packaged paper container,” he said.
After gaining ground, he realised there was a gap – which was the fact most of the crops cultivated are only sold raw and not converted into any finished goods that could generate gains for the community.
Upon realising this, Faried said he interacted with some people who were into local beverage production, learned from them and built upon his craft – leading to the introduction of local non-alcoholic champagne prepared mainly with corn, honey and other ingredients found in the country.
He said he chose to explore the beverage production industry because there are just a few champagnes produced in the country, though there is a huge local capacity.
“In 2019, I realised that the region has lots of raw materials but little is being done to tap into them to grow the economy. I decided to do some samples of the drink, which tested positive – hence inception of the local champagne to encourage patronage of local products.
“The idea was that in the Northern Region there is high unemployment, so I wanted to bring a project that people can come onboard to make a living – which would serve as job opportunities for the youth and women. And I considered turning those hobbies into businesses as an opportunity for me to also create jobs, for colleague students on campus to earn a living and support their academics,” he said.
Uniqueness
“Our produce has been certified and approved by the Food and Agricultural Authority, Environmental Protection Agency as well as Ghana Standards Authority.
“As a medical practitioner, I always check the health status of staff before commencing production; and also make sure that the environment is safe to ensure quality beverages are produced for healthy consumption.”
Challenges
Faried said funding is a challenge to his team.
“It has not really been that easy; but then, we are focused on achieving our goal to complement government’s agenda – that is, the One District-One Factory initiative targetted toward development of the nation and boosting economic growth.”
Vision
In the next five years, Faried wishes to build the capacity of his team, improve on the production line and extend its services to other parts of the country.
“We are bent on expanding the business to meet demand. We will keep pushing and see how best we can reach out for investors to come on board and support our ideas,” he added.
How government should assist startups
Faried said government can assist startups by supporting the enthusiastic initiative of youths to help produce locally to feed the nation, instead of relying on importation which is a cost to the country.
“If we are able to produce our own, it will help fight this inflation; because if we keep importing, there is no way we can fight this inflation.
“I believe that in the future if we really want to fight this inflation and the high negative deficits, we need to embark on and ‘operation feed yourself’ – just as former President Ignatius Kutu Acheampong advocated through the Operation Feed Yourself agenda.”
Contact details
Contact: 0501111216
Email: [email protected]
