Philomena Debrah— Her long Journey to establishing Gari Instant mix

Philo Delio Smile foods(women&children)
Philomena Debrah— Her long journey to establishing Gari Instant Mix.
Story and Picture : Doreen Allotey

AFTER long years of struggle to establish her own manufacturing company, Ms Philomena Debrah, Managing Director of Philio Delio Smile Foods, is convinced about one thing.
She is convinced that until the government establishes an institution to guide, guard and finance people with brilliant entrepreneurial ideas to start their business, many people with such ideas, but without funds will go no where with their ideas.
Quoting an Akan proverb to support this, she said, “Se wo sika sua, wo asem sua”, which literally means that if you have little money, your influence in society is very limited.
Ms Debrah had always dreamt of one thing for herself— to become self-employed in a manufacturing or production business of some sort, big or small.
After training as a teacher, she taught at a primary school in Nkawkaw for almost four years, but her dream did not allow her to continue in the profession. In the fourth year of teaching, she left to work towards fulfilling her dreams. Little did she know that she had more than an arduous task ahead.
She is now producing a special kind of food she calls ‘Gari Instant Mix’. This mix is made up of gari, milk and groundnuts and other ingredients which improve the nutritional value of the mix.
She believes that “good health is priceless, so I do everything to make sure the mix is prepared in a hygienic way; the Food and Drugs Board and the Ghana Standards Board have certified my product”.
Recounting her difficulties, Ms Debrah said her several visits to banks, the National Board for Small Scale Industries, German Development Agency ( GTZ), Danish International Development Agency( DANIDA) and Japanese International Co-operation Agency ( JICA) were tiring but fruitless.
“They told me that, “ We don’t do it with starters. You have to start before we come in to assist.”
In the end, she had to rely on her own savings, while she traded in all kinds of items for survival after leaving the classroom.
She started by travelling along countries along the west coast. She bought black thread for plaiting hair and electrical tapes from those countries and brought them to Accra for sale.
Then she progressed to travelling to Italy to buy scarves, shoes, watches and bags for supply to shops in Accra. The difficulty with this trade was debt collection. Those she supplied the items to played hanky-panky with her.
Ms Debrah stopped that business and opened a pharmaceutical shop. She later stopped this job too and landed in China where she bought some items made from melamine, plastic cups, napkins and take-away food packs .
As the years went by, her dream of establishing the company continued to haunt her. She mobilised everything she had accrued and started the Gari Instant Mix.
For the lack of capital, she got stuck along the way. She now wants to start producing a kind of herbal drink for refreshment to offer a choice to those who are health conscious and want to avoid sugary drinks.
She also wants to expand her Gari Instant Mix business to Nigeria, “but I cannot afford the $10,000 needed for registration with the Nigeria Food and Drugs Board”. She also wants to manufacture a bottled cocoa drink.
For Ms Debrah, the struggle to remain in private business continues.