During her time working in an international NGO, Ms. Grace Biniyam was working on a project about nutrition and food consumption for Ghanaian students. She originally used Ghanaian rice, but the students would complain about the rice all the time. After looking into the reason, Ms. Grace quickly found out the problem.

“Students ran into small pebbles in their rice. Ghanaian rice, compared to imported rice, were lacking in quality packaging and weren’t being processed well. This was also affecting normal customers, leading them towards imported goods.”

Ms. Grace saw this experience as an opportunity. She thought that Ghanaian produce could help the people in her hometown. What could she possibly mean by helping people with produce?

출처: Modern Ghana

“I’m from northern Ghana. Almost 30% of the population there is unemployed. I had to cut down trees with my mom in order to pay for my school. This isn’t new for us. Young girls work as porters in bustling markets, and boys often work in illegal mines. Sometimes they die there because of some accidents.”

People in northern Ghana usually make their money by selling produce to middlemen at a measly cost. The middlemen then add value to the produce and sell them, gaining large profits that are not shared to the farmers. Ms. Grace thought that by producing, processing, and circulating local produce, she could give people jobs.

And so she started Eagle Legacy Enterprises. It started off small, with family members huddled together and processing rice to sell them. But as their sales increased, another problem emerged. Heaps and heaps of straws and low quality rice was a bit too much to just throw away.

“We probably could have thrown them all away. But once we thought about the waste that that would cause, we couldn’t bring ourselves to do so. While we were looking for ways to get rid of the straws, we discovered that they could be used to make feed for pigs. We thought, eureka!”

Pigs are highly profitable. They grow fast and don’t need large spaces. Another perk they have is the fact that people don’t need experience and skills to raise pigs. As of right now, pigs are outweighing rice in terms of profit for Eagle Legacy Enterprise. Ms. Grace says that the fact that they could employ more people while expanding their business made her very happy.

“Employment and jobs are tools to make things happen. The reason I put so much emphasis on employing is simple. By employment, people earn more, eat better, and spend more to benefit more people.”

Ms. Grace and Eagle Legacy Enterprise are still working hard with everyone. Support Ms. Grace’s journey to provide everyone with stable income that everyone deserves!