Agriculture value chain: A solution towards youth and women employment in Africa

An amazing young agri-socialpreneur transforms her life and women farmer life because of her personal experience.

With tasks to map out young Agripreneurs, She trained and mentor them across CSAYN member countries. With her commitment toward this success story CSAYN recognized her as the Goodwill Ambassador for Agribusiness.

Roseline Delali Ashigbui is a young single mother who started her business out of nothing.

In 2013, her life took a bad turn but it did not stop her from living, rather it challenges her to become the better version of herself. Working for 72 hours without sleep was normal thing for Roseline; in spite of tiredness and loneliness, she always kept looking up and refused to remain poor.

She saw many women in the community with same case and started thinking critically about the way to help herself and these women, going through similar challenges and also started identifying problems that women are facing in her community. This personal experience definitely inspired and motivated Roselyne to create her company: Delchris Africa Limited.

Post-harvest losses and food waste: The major challenge over the years for women farmer whose major occupation is cultivation of maize, groundnuts, brown rice, has being access to the right market for their farm produce in the Hohoe municipal area.

Youth and women empowerment and repossessing age-old farming as a business: the prevailing high rate of unemployment and the phenomenon of young school dropouts as a result of teenage pregnancy and single parenting. This will be resolved with the opportunity of offering meaningful jobs for self-sustainability.

Malnutrition: The deteriorating health conditions of most Ghanaians due to the adoption of negative foreign cultural behaviours whereby Ghanaians eat more of the unhealthy but attractively packaged imported foods full of chemicals. It is increasing the risk of some diseases such as kidney failure, cancers, tumours, cardiac arrest.

The company seeks to utilize backward integration process to offer ready market for the women involved in the cultivation of maize, groundnuts, brown rice, millet. It is integrating food waste management.

The concept also provides employment for the youth in the area through the production and attractive packaging of our healthy indigenous Ghanaian foods and snacks, to meet global standards.



Delchris Africa Ltd Saves Life

Sturdily turning over her 20 cedis, with a little help from family, Roseline’s business has grown into helping some other women and youth with the direct engagement of 18 women and youth in my community.

Currently, the company employs 12 women and 6 men at the age between 26 and 41 from different education level. Our amazing young business woman is full of integrity, passion, leadership. Also, she paid close attention to her collaborators: understanding them and the problems they are facing, knowing their dreams and passion.

Engaging them at the factory was to help them worked and save money to pursue their dreams, but just engaging them was not enough. The company provides training in other trades like detergent making, saving, record keeping and a mentoring session.

Currently, Roseline funds smallholder women farmers in cultivating maize and brown rice farm, build a cottage factory/ training centre.

For all these years, about 20 youths have directly worked with Delchris Africa ltd

- Three youth have successfully moved into pursuing their dream but still under my close monitoring, they come to work anytime they are in town ie currently

- Two are still working with us but taking their degree course under distant education programme

- There is mentoring of 16 young ladies’ businesses in various farming communities under solidaridad Africa

Roseline’s journey

Some universities she periodically visits as a youth and industry expect to lecture, inspire the students either in opportunities in agribusiness, women empowerment or entrepreneurship

- University of cape coast (school of agriculture and school of business)

- University of Ghana, School of Business Legon (Graduate school)

She also either been invited, partner an organisation and the Ghana government to talk to the youth on agribusiness, entrepreneurship, gender, women empowerment.

Awards and Recognitions

- 2015: Best Agro-Processor of the Year (Ministry Of Agriculture, Farmers Day), Municipal

- 2016: National Overall Best Graduate Enterprise Development Initiative (Eximbank Ghana)

- 2017: Listed Most Outstanding Startup of the Year (Ghana Startup Award)

- 2017: Listed Top 100 Most Outstanding Women Entrepreneur in Ghana (Women Rising)

- 2017: Product Innovation of the Year Award (SME Ghana Awards)

- 2018: first prize national board for small scale industries women pitch competition

Restructuring smallholder farming, promoting and advocating Agribusiness in farming communities

- Highlighting the business side of farming in the farming communities of Ghana, that is developing the smallholder farmers into commercial farmers by working with them directly as done with the pilot 7 farmer through training, close monitoring and motivation.

- Some earmark second cycle schools in farming communities of which majority of the students have farms while schooling but do not see it as a venture and abandoned them to the cities after schooling in search of job.

- Introduction and advocacy for improving women and youth participation in bio-fortified food value chain to combat hidden hunger through nutritious food baskets in Ghana