Visit in December 2025
December 17, 2025
New business starters
We had received 13 business starter applications, and during November we shortlisted five of them, with the intention of funding two. However, the five ones we interviewed were very compelling, and it proved difficult to select two from among them. The interview panel (pictured sitting) consisted of Vivian, Chris Williamson, me, and Kwasi. Instead, after a lot of discussion with the candidates on effective ways to kick off their business with smaller budgets, we decided we could fund all five for an initial phase which allows them to get started.
The results:
| Business owner |
Trade |
Location |
Amount (GHC) |
| FKDFrank Kwasi Dwomoh |
Poultry farming |
Aframano |
19,700 |
| NENaakman Evans |
Farmer supplies |
Aframano |
10,000 |
| ASAdoubi Sandra |
Hairdresser |
Nsuta |
12,000 |
| LYLeticia Yara |
Tailor |
Nsuta |
10,000 |
| MAMary Agyei |
Tailor |
Nsuta |
5,000 |
FKDFrank Kwasi Dwomoh (pictured) has a mature proposal, with the benefit that he will initially use part of an existing animal enclosure built by Turbo Ghana for a previous (ongoing) business. He scaled down his budget by reducing the number of birds, but the costs remained quite high because there is the overhead of building a new enclosure for more mature birds.
NENaakman Evans’s business is straightforward and readily scalable, and he already has a suitable premises (pictured).
ASAdoubi Sandra and
LYLeticia Yara both wanted to buy new container shops on newly acquired land, but after discussion they agreed it would be better to start in an existing, rented container.
ASAdoubi Sandra will rent a container from Crespo Printing, and
LYLeticia Yara will rent the green and white one shown. Their budget allows them to decorate the container (painting, etc.) as well as to buy the tools for their trade.
MAMary Agyei is a tailor shop in Nsuta, already hosting two Turbo Ghana apprentices; her application was for business improvement rather than business starter, and she will buy a new electric sewing machine. The picture shows
VVivian,
MMary, Mark,
JJosephine, Chris,
LLetitia.
The total for all five businesses comes to 56,700 GHC, currently equivalent to £3,683. This is quite a bargain if all the businesses prove to be successful, which is my hope.
New apprentices
We had received 93 apprenticeship applications - a huge and challenging number - and during November we shortlisted 21 of them, with the intention of funding 8-10. Once again, the panel (pictured) consisted of Vivian, Chris, me, and Kwasi.
The interviewing process was quite difficult, but the applicants helped by really dividing themselves into two sets; those who seemed to know what they want and have relevant prior experience, and those who seemed a bit outside of their comfort zone. I can understand that such a formal interview process is quite unfamiliar to young people in rural communities. I thought it was clear that we should only select those in the first set, but in his gentle and considerate way Kwasi pointed out qualities of candidates that were not obvious to me. So we took a mix of different kinds of candidates, which is the right thing to do in terms of balancing risk and reward.
Vivian requested to add two candidates that were not shortlisted, based on her not having understood that she could have argued for that during the shortlisting process. The panel members voted to accept this proposal. We were also helped by the fact that some candidates had not turned up.
After the interviews, we held a selection meeting and voted for each candidate, and selected the candidates with the most votes. Everyone on the panel was happy with the result. The accepted candidates are:
| Apprentice |
Trade |
Location |
Trainer |
| JNDJoshua Ntedo Dawon |
Electrician |
Aframano |
Kofi Ampofo |
| LALinda Agyie |
Tailor |
Nsuta |
Mary Ode |
| MAMaria Adams |
Tailor |
Bonkrong |
Omega |
| IAIsaac Adadzi |
Electrician |
Kofiase |
Kofi Ampofo |
| CBChristopher Boakyempong |
Tailor(M) |
Nsuta |
Kwadwo |
| HOKHannah Opoku Kyerewaa |
Electrician(F) |
Kofiase |
Kofi Ampofo |
| DOADennis Obeng Awuah |
Tiler |
Nsuta |
Boga |
| SDASamuel Danso Atta |
Electrician |
Nsuta |
Charles Opoku |
| DADora Ata |
Tailor |
Nsuta |
Mary Ode |
| AEAzure Esther |
Tailor |
Kofiase |
TBC |
Some details for some candidates are not settled yet, so this information may change.
Latrines in Bunuso
Turbo Ghana is finishing the building 101 private (household) latrines in Bunuso, at a cost which is still not fully settled but is likely to end up at around £150 per latrine. As there are up to 600 families in Bunuso, this is only starting to satisfy their needs; yet, the project is already rather expensive compared to the original idea of building a public toilet. At the time of our visit, 87 of them were complete, with the remaining 14 nearly finished. A couple of weeks later, the 101 latrines were declared finished.
We had discussions with several householders, including
AAlice (pictured).
Developments in Aframano
We visited all our projects in Aframano. The school is looking great. And it’s a relief to see that the mechanised borehole is running well, now that the village is connected to the electricity grid.
Our recent projects include the teacher toilet block (2 male and 2 female toilets), and the teacher accommodation at Anyankamamu. They are finished and ready to be used now. The Municipal Chief Executive wants to have an inauguration ceremony for the teacher accommodation (see below).
Mampong Muslim school
We provided this lovely school with 100 “monodesks”, seen here branded with “Donated by Turbo Ghana”. (Branding the furniture in this way is important, because it allows us to see what has happened to our donations on future visits.) The children at the school expressed a lot of appreciation, saying that having the desks allowed them to learn more effectively. As always, I emphasised the importance of maintaining them correctly. As soon as they start to get lose, it’s vital to repair them.
The children at this school are very enthusiastic and talkative. They liked telling me about their experiences and their lives.
Amaniampong school
Kofiase SDA school B
Municipal Chief Executive meeting at Mampong
We had a meeting with Yakubu Issifu (pictured, blue suit), who is the newly-appointed Municipal Chief Executive. Reassuringly, he is both knowledgeable and appreciative of the work we are doing in his municipality. He will hold an inauguration ceremony for our now-completed
five-room teacher accommodation at Anyankamamu. He mentions it in his
Christmas speech (section 3.2), and praises the work of Turbo Ghana.
Social
It was my first time for someone to accompany me on a trip to Ghana, and I couldn’t have wished for a nicer companion than my friend
Chris Williamson. His contribution on the interview panels and selection meetings was invaluable. I had forgotten that Turbo Ghana had produced a plaque to acknowledge financial support from Chris and other
SW7 Group colleagues back in 2022, so it was nice to discover that plaque together.
We went to the Farmer Day celebration. Emanuel and Alex brought us coconuts!
