13 Female-led horticulture business owners have been certified by HortiFresh through MDF West Africa for successfully completing the maiden HortiFresh Female Business Accelerator Programme.

Certificates and plaques were handed out to graduands by the Programme Manager of HortiFresh, Sheila Assibey-Yeboah and the Lead Business Development Services of MDF West Africa, Susanne Roelofsen.

The coaching programme aimed at strengthening the capacity of female entrepreneurs in the horticulture sector under the HortiFresh Access to Finance component.

The nine-month programme has been designed to focus on five key areas; business strategy, sales and marketing, human resource, business administration and financial management. It also addressed key challenges in the management of horticulture businesses.

 Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Programmes Manager of HortiFresh, highlighted the importance of capacity strengthening in the area of financial and business management.

She noted that, this will go a long way to position businesses in the horticulture sector for support from the financial sector and impact communities.

The Lead Business Development Services of MDF West Africa, the consulting and implementing partner for the Female Business Accelerator coaching program, Susanne Roelofsen expressed appreciation to HortiFresh for the opportunity to train these businesses and commended the 13 enterpreneurs for completing programme.

According to her, this is a key milestone in getting their businesses ready to tap into opportunities available in the financial sector.

She urged all the female enterpreneurs to strictly adhere to and implement the various elements of the programme in the day to day management of their businesses.

HortiFresh is a programme supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands which has prioritized commercial agriculture in its strategic plan of moving from aid to trade.

The programme’s mission is to establish “a sustainable and internationally competitive fruit and vegetable sector that contributes to inclusive economic growth, food and nutrition security” in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The programme aims to reach 15,000 farmers and increase their productivity by 20% by 2021.

MDF West Africa is a training and consultancy organisation with 35 years of experience in providing management training, advisory and evaluation services worldwide.