By Deborah Asantewaah SARFO
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mariseth Farms, Marian Ofori Twumasi, has won the overall award at the just-ended 2024 Women in Agric Business Award (WiAA).
The overall award, tagged ‘African Agribusiness Woman of the Year’, recognises an outstanding female entrepreneur in the African agribusiness sector who has demonstrated exceptional leadership, innovation and impact.
With no background in agriculture, witnessing women process palm oil while at the Senior Secondary School (SSS) sparked her interest to venture into the sector, which she eventually did in 2014 after resigning from her job to become a full-time farmer.
The one-time 2021 National Best Youth Farmer noted that in addition to the inspiration from the women, the financial gains from the sector also influenced her decision to settle for farming.
“My motivation for venturing into agribusiness has been money. I mean the gains I got from agribusiness. So while in the corporate world, I did farming as my part-time business and after comparing the money I made from the farms to the allowance or salary I received every month, I realised it was a mismatch,” she elaborated.
The awards night is a climax of the 2024 Women in Agribusiness Week (WAW), organised by Guzakuza under the theme ‘Connecting Women: Connecting African Food Systems’.
Other women who emerged winners for the various categories – Export Business of the Year, Best Advocacy Award, Best Farmer of the Year and others – were also awarded for their contributions to the sector.
In her opening remarks, the Programmes Coordinator for WAW, Akosua Duah, reiterated that every achievement recognised is a milestone on a journey of countless challenges and hard-earned success.
She called for continuous support in creating pathways for connections that “strengthen communities and drive African agriculture forward”.
Addressing the women at the awards night, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Africa Brand Warrior, Fatima Alimohammed, challenged them to make the African continent their target and not the European Market as Africans’ capacity to consume is “six times higher than America and Europe”.
She added that while women in business strive to access the European market by meeting all international standards, they should also pay keen attention to the quality and standards of what they produce for the African continent.
The Lead for Guzakuza, Nana Adjoa Sifa Amponsah, noted that identifying women in the space to recognise their efforts and unwillingness on the part of women to nominate themselves remain some challenges they face in their quest to celebrate women in agribusiness.
Responding to the strategies the government must implement to drive growth in the agricultural space, Mrs. Twumasi proposed the following: inclusion of women in the agricultural policies, offering financial assistance to women, and empowering the youth to embrace agriculture.
She also challenged women to be economically empowered, upgrade themselves, and go the extra mile to attain higher heights in all their endeavours because “the world is in the era where women are doing great things”.
“I call on all women to be empowered economically. When I say empowered, I don’t mean we are above the men; rather, women should strive to do more and upgrade ourselves. Irrespective of your field of work, do your best and know that you have no limits,” she urged.
