Entrepreneur Spotlight: Asanta eCARE Centre

Under eCARE centre window Entrepreneur Mr. Dwukwah (middle) discusses operations with eCARE Manager Mr. Joseph Abanyin (right) and eCARE Entrepreneur Coordination Officer Mr. Fred Brookman (left).

IN ASANTA, Western Region Paul Kofi Dwukwah has successfully started business at his Promise eCARE Centre. His daughter, Mavis, assists in the work at the eCARE Centre as Mr. Dwukwah is still working as a farmer, running other businesses in Asanta and an Assembly member. Asanta is located in Western Region, not far from Ankobra. e-Commerce And Renewable Energy (eCARE) provides rural Ghanaians such as Mr. Dwukwah with the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and own a communition centre complete with telephones, computer, printer, and solar energy panel.

Part of the eCARE project team visited the centre on the 25^th of July 2006 on a mission to Western and Central regions to assess the business for the eCARE centres. The Asanta eCARE Centre started operations in April 2006. They are now providing telephony services, phone charging, printing of documents, picture scanning, poster creation, ONEtouch phone card sales, fax and creation of wedding cards. He hopes to add a photocopier to his site in the near future. They advertise all of the products and services that they provide on the local radio as well as Ankobra FM 101.9. He also has employed sales agent that sell ONEtouch products in the nearby communities which reduces the transportation costs for those people who normally would travel in order to obtain phone cards.

When the lights go out in Asanta, this entrepreneur doesn’t fret. His eCARE centre becomes the only light in town due to the eCARE solar energy panels and when he is showing movies at his nearby screening area he can easily use the solar energy in order to keep his audience satisfied. “If there is light, no light because of eCARE we can always charge phones.”

Inside Asanta's eCARE Centre Entrepreneur Mr. Dwukwah at his often solar powered theatre.

New eCARE Entrepreneurs Prepare to Receive their eCARE Centres

The above picture shows part of the eCARE team and eCARE entrepreneurs that will be starting business in the next month (end of August/early Sept 2006). The entrepreneurs passed through a week-long training program and have paid seed money for the establishment of eCARE centres in rural and peri-urban communities in Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, and Northern regions of Ghana. eCARE will be hosting a launching of the new sites in a small village in Ghana's Brong Ahafo region, Adjaraja Beposo. The eCARE centre in this village will be fully powered by solar energy panels and the centre will be the only light in this remote village that does not have access to electricity. Mr. Anthony Osei Poku is the entrepreneur of the site in Adjaraja Beposo, Ghana. "My eCARE centre will be the only light in town - people will naturally gather at the eCARE centre." Mr. Osei has many plans for allowing the community to learn about computers at the centre. His centre will be serving a wide area that otherwise does not have easy access to computers and cheap telephony services. "Community members will be able to access pricing information of yams in Kokomba Yam Market and in Accra which will improve their business - yams are a major business in this area." On 24 August 2006 eCARE's project partners, local community leaders, Ghana Telecom management, eCARE entrepreneurs, and community members will gather together in Adjaraja Beposo to celebrate the commissioning of more eCARE centres.

Below are some eCARE pictures!

Inside an eCARE Centre

Outside View of eCARE Centre Entrepreneurs at Week-long Training

Entrepreneur Working in her eCARE Centre