Producing toothpick locally; Pamplo Ghana to the rescue
The country’s heavy dependence on imports has partly been blamed for its economic woes. Ghanaians import almost everything and anything; from onions from neigbouring countries to toothpicks from China.
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This situation has had serious repercussions on the foreign exchange market and denied many Ghanaians the opportunity of employment. Recently, the President renewed his call to Ghanaians to embrace manufacturing as one of the ways to cut down the dependence on scarce foreign exchange.
One company, Pamplo Ghana Limited, seems to have heeded this call. Located at Ogbojo in Accra, the company is manufacturing toothpicks, skewers and kebab sticks with bamboo from Ghana, using machinery imported from China.
So far the company , which started production in February this year , produces 4,000 toothpicks, 17,500 kebab sticks and 50,000 skewers a month.
But according to the CEO of the company, Nii Ashaley Okine, the factory was only manufacturing 10 per cent of its capacity.
“We are still getting to know the machines, making improvements here and there as we move along and with time and the needed capital we should be producing more ,“ he explained.
He said there was a ready market for the skewers and the kebab sticks and even though the toothpicks were also being patronised , some customers still preferred those from China because they were used to them.
Nii Ashaley buys his major raw material — bamboo — from different sources within the country. He has realised that the quality differs . These differences were part of the initial challenges he faced as he struggled to produce the sticks.
“At a point, a whole batch of bamboo I had bought went to waste because what came out was just not good quality and what I am trying to build is the best quality,” he said.
With time, he has realised that he gets good quality products from the bamboo he buys from the Central Region.
Currently, the company is targeting fruit sellers and chop bars inside and outside of Accra to establish a market. He also intends to improve upon packaging in order to reach out to big hotels, restaurants and airlines.
Challenges
The company faced many challenges in its infant stages. There were many times when the CEO felt like giving up. Importing the machinery and establishing the factory has cost him more than GH¢200,000.
“The freight charges, transportation, and cabling to support the machines have given me a lot of headaches,” Nii Ashaley said about preparations to set up the factory.
Another challenge has been the lack of constant electricity supply. The power fluctuation blew up the motors of some of the machines a number of times until he did a different wiring and cabling which was able to hold the surges in check. But then again, with the irregular power supply, whenever there was no power, no production took place yet the workers had to be paid at the end of the month.
The general Ghanaian attitude to time has also been a problem, “ suppliers give me time to come for my raw materials; I arrive there and there is no show and not even an apology,” he said.
To surmount this problem , the company intends to build a storage facility when it moves to its new site in Amrahia so that it can purchase larger quantities but funding remains a major challenge. Added to this is the challenge of minimising the noise from the machines.
“When all the machines are working the noise is too much so I don’t switch all on at the same time. When we move to our new site which is more spacious and not in a residential area, this problem too will be sorted out,” Nii Ashaley said.
Nii Ashaley, who is a banker, works from 6a.m. to 6p.m. on weekdays. After work, he takes off his suit and tie, wears his overall and enters the factory to help in the manufacturing processes.
In the long term, he hopes to get financial assistance to improve on his products and to get more customers so that the machines could work at full capacity.
Writer’s email: [email protected]
