The founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Organic Trade and Investments (OTI), Esther Ama Asante, is set to speak at the upcoming Female Leaders & Entrepreneurs Conference (FLEC).
She is expected to join a panel of other distinguished speakers from various industries to share her knowledge and experience as a female entrepreneur.
The Meet-Up, which is an initiative of Compass Consulting Services is aimed at examining the various types of innovations and support that have helped Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in building back stronger.
The women-centered event is scheduled to come off at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Ghana, on Monday, November 22, 2021.
This year's event will be held under the theme; "Building resilience as a business strategy".
Esther Asante will be part of a panel that will discuss and answer questions on the following topical areas: Agriculture | Manufacturing | Distribution & Retail |Finance | Media.
Esther will be sharing her wealth of experience as one who has seen and done it all in the world of entrepreneurship and SMEs.
Prior to her current occupation as CEO of Organic Trade & Investments, Esther was the Relocation Manager at Executive Relocations Africa, a subsidiary of AGS Movers, and the Quality Manager, Personal Assistant, and Commercial Manager at Swissport Ghana Limited (2015 to 2018).
She spearheaded the digitalization of the operations management system of OTI, which currently integrates 12,000 farmers and 300 small-scale manufacturers across Africa.
In 2018, she was awarded the Best Female E-commerce Entrepreneur award; the only woman to hold this award in Ghana. In March 2020, she was the only Ghanaian to be conferred the African Global Trade and Investment in Excellence (AGTIE) Award for Trade & Investment Facilitation Excellence.
Esthy, as she is affectionately called, has attended several online and in-person conferences as a panelist. She was recently a lauded speaker and award-winner at the 2020 edition of the Global Women’s Summit.
FLEC will host women who have built SMEs to share tips and knowledge on how to tackle challenges youth and women may face at the pre and post setup stage of their entrepreneurial ventures.
They are expected to highlight technical innovations and knowledge that have provided assistance and helped them to build tools to withstand continued market uncertainty while positioning for stronger post-Covid.
This event comes at a time when many businesses are still reeling from the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on economies.
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, “The continent generates only 3.7 million jobs annually.
For many women and youths, the informal sector is the default when it comes to employment in Africa- in other words, our talent pool is not adequately employed/ meaningfully engaged”.
The Commission also noted that “entrepreneurship offers opportunities for the youth bulge in West African and the related high unemployment, especially of the young graduated aged between 15-29 whose unemployment rate is estimated to be high among young graduates aged 15 to 29. Unemployment rates for young graduates range from 9.5% (Ghana) to 50.2% (Guinea)”.
