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Standards Developed forCassava and Cosmetics
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In Europe alone, sales of natural and organic cosmetics have grown at an average of over 7% per year over the past five years and are expected to reach 5 billion EUR by 2023.
While there is undoubtedly great potential to develop a professional cosmetic industry in Ghana as the country has some talented formulators, experienced entrepreneurs, and a range of potentially interesting raw materials for essential oils, there is still much to be done to convert this potential into a viable sustainable industry.
WACOMP in Ghana is implementing activities to enhance knowledge sharing and strengthen market access for young entrepreneurs in the natural cosmetics sector. Since 2019, the project has undertaken an in-depth value chain analysis and identified four (4) main cosmetic clusters around the following products: shea based cosmetics, black soap, coconut oil and essential oils.
To strengthen the competitiveness of these clusters, WACOMP Ghana has been providing technical support to the cosmetics and personal care producers to improve their products and increase their exports within the regional and international markets.
The project has trained over two hundred (200) entrepreneurs in cosmetics formulation, packaging,
branding, and the promotion of origin-linked quality labels, eco-friendly packaging materials, quality standards, registration and certification of products. Besides the quality aspects, the project has also supported the development of collective communication and marketing plan to trigger sales of natural cosmetics and personal care products
both on national and international markets.
In April 2021, the project in partnership with the Association of Ghana Industries launched the Ghana Cosmetics Cluster, a digital platform to promote and market locally produced cosmetics products from Ghana. The platform has been designed based on the best international examples of cosmetic cluster digital platforms. It will serve as the country’s cosmetic industry digital promotional display and will support AGI in showcasing the Ghanaian cosmetic cluster
products and provide greater visibility for SMEs locally and internationally.
This initiative aims at facilitating networking and market interactions: business-to-business (B2B), business-to-customer (B2C), and customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction, thereby contributing to boosting the cosmetics and personal care industry and positioning Ghana as a quality market hub for cosmetic products.
Over twenty (20) cosmetics SMEs have been guided to receive the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) certificates
through the projects cluster networks support system while over 100 cottage and micro enterprises are being taken through the right process of meeting the requirement. An easy-to-use guidebook has been developed for the companies to use.
To further strengthen SMEs’ participation in the global markets, WACOMP Ghana also provided individual distant coaching sessions to selected companies.
Sharon Acheampong is one of the young entrepreneurs benefiting from the WACOMP – Ghana programme.
In 2021, Sharon launched an e-commerce shop for her Eya Naturals and Kaydua Luxury brands and made decisions that support her brand’s growth.
