Accra, March 09, GNA — About 700 women at Kaase, in the Ashanti Region, have been enrolled onto the National Health Insurance Scheme by Olam Food Ingredients (ofi), Ghana, a Licensed Buying Company (L.B.C.) in Ghana’s cocoa sector.
Many also received medical screenings and participated in impactful events as part of the Company’s activities to commemorate this year’s International Women’s International Day (IWD), at its cocoa processing factory.
This was in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra.
Over the years, it said, ofi had joined the global community to observe the U.N. International Women’s Day celebration, which sought to accelerate gender parity and recognise women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements.
The statement said, this year, as part of the celebration and its corporate social responsibility, the Company organised a community outreach at the Kaase M/A School, where a durbar was held to commemorate the Day.
“This outreach offered free medical screening and National Health Insurance Scheme (N.H.I.S.) card registration opportunities to women and children in the community,” it added.
Speaking at the programme, Sylvia Amo-Asare, President, Globally Reaching ofi Women (GROW), ofi’s female network group, stated that, “As part of the corporate drive to ensure thriving communities within our operational areas, it was vital that we enhanced accessibility to healthcare by women and children within the Kaase community to support low-income households.”
Mr. Eric Asare Botwe, Country Head of ofi, which is also one of the lead exporters of cashew in the industry, noted that the International Women’s Day celebration was an important event on the Company’s calendar because women were significant stakeholders for ofi.
“The vision is to have some diversity and inclusion in our workspaces to ensure that women are part of the growth of our business,” he explained.
“We have actively done so over the years by empowering our women stakeholders, including the farmers and most especially, our Globally Reaching ofi Women (G.R.O.W) team here in Ghana to ensure our capacity is not male-dominant in a bid to accelerate the gender parity,” Mr Botwe noted.
The Queen Mother of Kaase, Nana Abena Konadu, applauded the efforts of ofi and urged the people to take advantage of the opportunity provided.
Present at the durbar to grace the occasion were: Nana Kwame Owusu Ansah, Kaasehene’s representative, Mr Akwanuasa Gyimah, MCE, Asokwa Municipality, Kaase Chief Imam, Alhaji Abdul Wahab, Mr Akwasi Danso, Assemblyman, Master Cosmos Kodua, Headmaster, Kaase MA school, representatives from Ghana Health Service, and many others.
Other activities to mark the day included a Realtalk with ofi’s Global C.E.O., Shekhar, and the Chief Human Resource Officer, Usha Kakaria – Cayeau, who had discussions on how the business was poised to embrace equity in a virtual session.
There was also an empowerment session with a former Minister for Gender, Children, and Social Protection, Dr. Otiko Afisah Djaba, as a guest speaker.
She shared her career journey and life experiences with the team.
ofi (olam food ingredients) is a new operating group born out of Olam International. ofi offers sustainable, natural, value-added food products and ingredients so that consumers can enjoy the healthy and indulgent products they love.
It consists of industry-leading businesses of cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts, and spices.
ofi has built a unique global value chain presence, including its own farming operations, farm-gate origination, and manufacturing facilities.
Olam is a leading food and agri-business supplying food, ingredients, feed and fiber to 17,300 customers worldwide.
Its value chain spans over 60 countries and includes farming, processing and distribution operations, as well as a sourcing network of an estimated five million farmers.
Headquartered and listed in Singapore, Olam currently ranks among the top 30 largest primary listed companies in terms of market capitalization on SGX-ST.
GNA