From ‘head pan’ to ‘global supplier’ - The success story of a NYA ‘Digital Training’ beneficiary

Mary Mensah, a young lady who sells gari and palm oil on a head pan in and around Ayigya Zongo, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region is on her way to become a global supplier of Gari and Palm oil.

Her success comes after she availed herself for the ongoing nationwide Online Marketing and Digital Media Entrepreneurship Training by the National Youth Authority (NYA).

This came to light when a team from the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE), consultant to the NYA on the Nationwide Training of Youth in Online Marketing and Digital Media Entrepreneurship Training visited the NYA Centre in Kumasi where the training is being held for assessment.

As a young lady, Mary had numerous chores to help make financial ends meat for herself and the family. A former vegetable seller, who now deals in Gari and Palm oil will have to trek miles daily before selling to prospective customers.

Mary was lured to take part in the NYA Online Marketing and Digital Media Entrepreneurship Training program because initially she was made to believe that after the training, participants would be engaged by ECOBANK Ghana and be given free laptops.

This mindset of Mary Mensah, however changed after the participants of the training were taken through topics such as Digital marketing, social media marketing, video marketing, online advertising, email marketing, content creation and E-commerce.

According to Mary, she had been using a smartphone for over years now, but never knew the phone worth much than just using it for calls and making friends on social media.

She said during the training, she had the understanding that her smartphone could be used to make profit, particularly assisting in the sales of her Gari and Palm oil.

“During one of our projects in class, we were asked to create and develop a content of the businesses we do or wish to do and post that business on any social media platform. I posted samples of my products on my WhatsApp status and my Facebook page with my contact. Shortly after, I started receiving calls from people from different parts of the world including Canada,” she revealed.

Mary Mensah continued that, the amazing thing is that a guy called from Canada to request for an initial supply of 50 gallons of palm oil and 50kg bags of Gari, however, the challenge was how to get the items to the person in Canada and how to get her money.

According to Mary, she gladly discussed the good news to the trainers and they have assured to assist her seal the deal in a shortest possible time.

The team from AITI-KACE was amazed to hear from some of the participants: their success stories during the training, as most were inspired and ready to start up their own businesses, with others already started.

Martha Atakorah from Ashanti-Mampong who has completed Nursing Training, indicated that the training has helped her a lot because it has enlightened her to pursue her plan to implement an idea of Home Nursing Care.

Ama Akanyika commented on the training saying it has helped her on how to reach more clients for her shea-butter business through the use of social media tools.

Frederick Arko Acheampong added that he has been inspired to start online delivery services after acquiring much knowledge and importance of social media for profit.

Stephen Owusu Boateng, a fashion designer could not hide what he has been able to do with the training to sell his products to people online.