By Eunice Hilda A. Mensah/Priscilla Oye Ofori
Accra, May 21, GNA – Some female owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have called for a renewed national mindset and behaviour towards climate change, to help reduce its adverse effects on the growth and sustainability of their businesses.
The women, engaged in various trades across the country, said extreme weather patterns brought on by climate change continued to hamper productivity and sales, ultimately threatening their livelihoods and economic empowerment.
Climate change, according to the United Nations, refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. While these changes can occur naturally, the UN states that since the 1800s, human activities – primarily the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas – have been the main drivers.
These activities release greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising global temperatures. The resulting effects include flooding, prolonged droughts, rising sea levels, intense storms, and desertification.
Mrs Paulina Addo, a bakery and beverage shop operator in Kumasi, told the Ghana News Agency in a telephone interview that long and heavy rainfall patterns disrupted her sales and earnings.
“When it’s the season for heavy rainfall, I start panicking because I think of how to pay my children’s school fees and pay my few workers. People barely come to buy pastries and drinks when it rains,” she lamented.
“Last Sunday, for instance, it rained from late morning till 6 p.m., and at that time, nobody would come to buy pastries. They might just go get some tea to drink and sleep.”
Mrs Addo, who operates her business with a loan facility from Asa Savings and Loans, said the situation became even more stressful when she was unable to meet repayment deadlines.
“I pay my loan every Wednesday. If I haven’t raised the required amount by then, they will turn to my women’s group for payment, and in turn, they will come to confront me at my shop,” she said.
At Yamfo in the Tano North District of the Ahafo Region, Mrs Habibatu Amadi, a mushroom farmer and mother of four, said her business had just begun to recover from a slump experienced during the previous dry season.
“When it starts to rain, it helps the mushrooms to grow well. When you put the spores in the bags, you can get more than 200 going bad during the dry season out of a thousand. You also have to spray the mushrooms like four times a day to be able to grow well, which is financially draining,” she explained.
She said a bag of mushrooms, which could ideally fetch GH¢500, might yield less than GH¢300 in a dry season, thereby affecting profit margins significantly.
Mrs Amadi urged the public to adopt climate-friendly practices such as the use of reusable bags and the recycling of plastic waste, to reduce environmental harm and climate impact.
“People can sell used plastic bags to collectors who recycle them into bowls, buckets, and chairs. That’s better than burning them or disposing of them carelessly,” she said.
Ms Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, Founder of Agrihouse Foundation, said traditional smallholder farmers remain vulnerable to weather patterns due to the lack of irrigation facilities, which limits agricultural productivity during the dry season.
She cited illegal mining, popularly known as “galamsey,” as a major contributor to climate change and environmental degradation, especially among female farmers.
“Women cocoa farmers are trading their lands to galamseyers for short-term gains of GH¢30,000, only to destroy their lands and later spend huge sums trying to restore them,” she said.
Ms Akosa called on the public to support efforts to mitigate climate change through environmentally sound practices, to safeguard livelihoods, ensure food security, and protect national resources for future generations.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe