DASOA Company markets straw baskets across the globe
Peasant farmers, especially women in Sherigu and its environs in Bolgatanga, have embraced straw basket weaving to bail them from abject poverty. This is because the scanty rainfall has almost reduced the area to a desert and this is undermining meaningful crop farming.
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For the past decade or more, women in the area have come under one umbrella to engage in the weaving of straw baskets to generate income.
The good news is that instead of traversing the tortuous route to Bolgatanga during market days, moving from client to client to bargain for the sale of their products, these women have ready market under the cash and carry system in their town.
The system
The system, initiated by the Managing Director of DASOA Company, Mr David Nsoh Amoah, a native of Bolgatanga who exports of straw baskets to Europe, Asia, America and the Far East, is mutually beneficial. The company ensures that the weavers produce the baskets to its specification and in turn, it offers the women good price, thus reducing the hazards of travelling to and from Bolgatanga under the mercy of the weather and the hazardous prevailing market conditions.
Some weavers putting touches to the products at the Bolga market
With the cash and carry system, the weavers in and around the local communities are not only kept in business that also provides them adequate revenue to cater for themselves, but also enables them to invest in the education of their children.
When the Daily Graphic caught up with some of the women on Wednesday, March 16, 2016, they were not only glued to the floor busily weaving, but also singing occasionally, just to motivate themselves to remain focused. Their style was reminiscent of the days of President Kwame Nkrumah during which local radios played patriotic songs during working hours. That process, dubbed: ‘Work and Happiness,’ motivated the working class, farmers and the business community to be focused on their work to maximise productivity.
Work and happiness
Their leader who only identified herself as Madam Anobase, said they had been engaged in the business for over two decades.
“The people in this community are virtually poor. This is because we cannot engage in any meaningful farming due to the prevailing climatic conditions, so from scratch, we learn to weave to generate income to fend for ourselves,” she explained. She said it had been the community’s business, hence their desire to learn from infancy.
Describing their link with DASOA Company as godsend, she said “without it, even food to feed the family, shelter and clothing would have been very difficult to come by, that is why we want to sustain it to continuously be in business”.
The most important support is the ready market he offers. With such generous offer, we are able to address our economic predicaments and socialise with our peers,” she said in appreciation.
Genesis of DASOA Company
Unlike many business tycoons who have many academic credentials to boast about, the Managing Director of DASOA Basket Exports, Mr Amoah, barely graduated from middle school, but that notwithstanding, he has become proficient in the queen’s language and acquired much experience in the business to boost his ego.
Through the export of straw basket, he has been globetrotting not only to participate in international fairs, but also marketing made-in-Ghana products to generate foreign exchange to enhance his business.
“I have over the years been exporting local handicrafts such as xylophones, cane and straw baskets, wood carvings, ‘oware’ games and dolls among others. They have been my source of livelihood since I started growing, but now, I mainly deal in the export of straw baskets,” he told the Daily Graphic.
Some clients inspecting the products at the Bolga market
He said: “I ventured into the business by accident. This was because my father wanted me to be a block layer in a technical school but he wasn’t able to raise money for my education, so he gave me capital to start the sale of straw baskets in Takoradi. That was the beginning of my business, which is now expanding tremendously. That also became the genesis of my travels around the world to expose made-in-Ghana products.”
He said since he started the business, he had been pre-financing some of the weavers, while also buying from others, but was quick to add, “Experience has proved that gathering many of the weavers at a spot and supervising their works is worthwhile. This is because many would have taken my money without providing the products at the expected time.”
“Some weavers take my money and vanish. In such situations, I find it difficult to meet the demand of my clients abroad which undermines the business,” he explained.
Employment opportunities
On the number of people working for him, he said: “I now have permanent employees of not less than 200, and indirectly, I employ about 500 weavers who give the baskets different designs to make them more attractive, so gradually, the business is expanding.”
“I don’t have a sound educational background, but through this business, I have travelled all over the world, met different classes of people and business tycoons. It has also broadened my horizons,” he said.
David Nsor displaying some of his awards
On where he started exporting such products, he mentioned Munchen in Germany early in the 90’s, where he made a breakthrough. He said his next stop was in California in 1994, and Japan in 1998, where he won an award.
“I was in China in 2012, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, China, Russia, Australia, the Middle East among others.”
“With the business thriving from strength to strength, there is nothing that I cannot do in life,” he noted, adding that his mission was to export over 100,000 straw baskets annually to each country in Europe, Asia and America with the view to generating foreign exchange for himself and the country.
Challenges
Commenting on the main challenges confronting him, he noted: “Failing to meet the deadline of your importers is heartbreaking. Sometimes I have the stock in their numbers, but there are no orders from my clients, and at times they order, but I can’t meet their demand because my suppliers fail me. In all such circumstances, monies are blocked, and this affects my profit margins.”
He said dealing with the banks that mostly failed to provide loans at the required time or at huge interests had also been undermining his businesses.
“I am trying to find a way out of this by building huge capital so as to avoid dealing with the banks,” he said.
As part of his strategy, he has a warehouse at Bolgatanga purposely to stock products to make it easy for him to meet the demands of his suppliers and ship them at any given time. “This builds the trust between us to sustain the business,” he noted.
He said the cash and carry system, where he pays the weavers promptly, was working like magic.
“They want quick money, so they are ever ready to finish their products on time, sell them and generate monies for their upkeep and invest in their children’s education, so there are mutual benefits.”
“Buying and stocking the baskets in my warehouse is very productive because when my competitors have no money to buy, I manage to buy from the weavers and supply them to my clients when the need arises,” he explained.
Graduate unemployment
On how he was exposing the youth to such businesses, he said he had started teaching them the techniques, hoping that they would appreciate its value and venture into the business to become entrepreneurs. “The graduate unemployment is now becoming too alarming, so it is my expectation that when they apply themselves diligently into this business, the country would benefit.”
