Local products can rub shoulders with giants - Says young entrepreneur
The Managing Director of cash counting and handling services provider, Alsale Services Ltd, Mr Ahmad Adade Boakye, has challenged Ghanaian manufacturing concerns to persevere and improve the finishing to make inroads into the local and international markets.
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He said most Ghanaian companies had great products and they could match those of blue chip firms to make a breakthrough in the marketplace if the local enterprises could improve finishing and blend that with good marketing communications.
“I believe Ghanaian brands can make an impact. I believe it is quality finishing and strong marketing communications that Ghanaian brands do not have. The great blue chip companies of the world used marketing communications and product development strategies,” Mr Boakye, whose 10-year-old company has already started its own brand, Alcount, said this in Accra on Thursday when Alsale inaugurated its three-storey office complex, with a warehouse and an assembly plant, as part of its 10th anniversary.
The company, which markets cash processing equipment, currently has its own brand, the Alcount range, with 12 models in three designs, which are currently competing with international brands on the local market.
Speaking on how he was able to carve a niche for the company, Mr Boakye said he refused to be boxed into tradition, saying, “I completely put that box aside and did my own thinking.”
The Alcount brand has been very successful in the country, with about 60 per cent popularity among Ghanaian banks, including rural and community banks.
The range includes counterfeit detectors, coin counting machines, shrink wrap machines and note sorters.
In addition, the company has its own air-conditioning brand, Alcool, and the Crane brand of fire resistant safes and vault doors which are 80 per cent manufactured locally.
The company, which has three branches, including one in Kumasi, aims at growing beyond the country to the West African sub-region and the rest of Africa.
A former First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Emmanuel Asiedu-Mantey, commended the company for the feat chalked up and urged staff and management to not be complacent but press towards higher achievements.
He said the job creation path the young entrepreneur had taken would support the economy, which had experienced shocks in recent times and needed such initiatives from individuals and corporate institutions to bring about change.
