Esther Afua Ocloo launched her entrepreneurial career as a teenager in the 1930s on less than a dollar!
In addition to her own business, she taught skills to other women and co-founded Women’s World Banking (WWB), a global micro-lending organisation.
On its website, the WWB microlending network says it lends to 16,4 million women around the world, managing a loans portfolio of over $9bn.
Known as “Auntie Ocloo”, Esther dedicated her life to helping others like her succeed.
Esther Afua Nkulenu was born on 18 April 1919 in Peki Dzake, British Togoland, to George Nkulenu, a blacksmith, and his wife Georgina, a potter and farmer.
The family was an impoverished one.
She began her schooling at a Presbyterian primary school and later went to a coeducational boarding school at Peki Blengo.
She was a bright student and won a scholarship to Achimota School where she studied from 1936 to 1941, obtaining the Cambridge School Certificate.
Ambitious from a young age, she started her first business venture shortly after her high school graduation.
With only a few Ghanian shillings given to her by an aunt, she bought sugar, oranges and 12 jars to make marmalade jam.
Ocloo sold them at a profit, despite the ridicule of her former classmates, who saw her as an “uneducated street vendor“.
Soon she won a contract to supply her high school with marmalade jam and orange juice, and later managed to secure a deal to provide the military with her goods.
On the basis of that contract, she took out a bank loan.
In 1942, she established a business under her maiden name, “Nkulenu”.
Ocloo then travelled to England to take a course in Food Science and Modern Processing Techniques at Bristol University.
In 1953, determined to grow her business with her newly acquired knowledge in food processing and preservation, she returned to her homeland with a mission to help Ghana become self-sufficient.
After returning home to Ghana from the U.K., Esther Afua married Stephen Ocloo.
The couple had four children: daughter Vincentia Canacco, and three sons, Vincent Malm, Christian Biassey and Steven Ocloo Jr.
In 1962, the company relocated to its present location at Madina, a suburb of the capital city, Accra.
Esther Afua Ocloo involved herself in the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s and served as an advisor for the United Nations First World Conference on Women in 1975.
Around this time, Esther Afua Ocloo started becoming involved in the micro-lending industry which provided small loans to millions of small scale female entrepreneurs all over the world.
This led to the formation of the Women’s World Banking (WWB) in 1979.
Her work in the field of micro-lending for women helped her make some surprising discoveries.
She said “You know what we found? We found that a woman selling rice and stew on the side of the street is making more money than most women in office jobs – but they are not taken seriously.”
Esther Afua Ocloo was the recipient of numerous awards for her work on the economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs.
In 1990, she was honored with the African Prize for Leadership (shared with Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria).
She was presented with the African Entrepreneurship Award in 2001 for providing innovative solutions for increasing food production in Africa
She proposed alternative solutions to the problems of hunger, poverty and the distribution of wealth – championing the development of an indigenous economy based on agriculture.
In 1999 interview she said:
“Our problem here in Ghana is that we have turned our back on agriculture.
Over the past 40 years, since the beginning of compulsory education, we have been mimicking the West..
We are now producing youth with degrees who don’t want to work in the fields or have anything to do with agriculture.” She added.
Nkulenu Industries still makes orange marmalade today and exports indigenous food items to markets abroad!!
Before she died her succession plan was already in place to avoid chaos after her death.
She became ill with pneumonia in early February 2002 and died on 8 February 2002, at the age of 82.
She received a state funeral in Accra before being buried at her hometown, Peki Dzake.
In 2017 (on her 98th birthday) she was celebrated worldwide when google launched a doodle to celebrate her incredible efforts.
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google’s homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures of particular countries.
May She Continue to Rest in Peace 🕊
