As far back as March 9, 2020, Mrs Bawumia revealed on Accra-based Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme about how much the plight of women in Ghana moved the Samira Empowerment for Humanitarian Project (SEHP) to facilitate the building of four Shea butter processing factories in the Shea nut-rich regions in the northern part of Ghana.
Since Mrs. Bawumia became the second lady, she has been preoccupied by the significant roles played by women, and her office has moved to promote and empower women and children in the country. She has challenged all, including non-government organizations and government agencies, to help prioritize women’s issues. It is, therefore, an undeniable fact that if Samira became the first lady by virtue of Bawumia becoming the president in Ghana on January 7, 2025, Samira would attain an unprecedented feat as first lady.
Since the days of Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, Ghana has never seen any enthusiastic first lady who empowers Ghanaian women as Samira promises. Rural women in the 31 December Women Movement across the nation were gainfully employed in small-scale Gari Producing Factories. With modern-day technology, digitalization, and the existence of a 1D1F policy, Samira could do a better job. Samira is indeed a promising first lady Ghana cannot afford lose. Get Bawumia elected, and Samira would do more women empowerment in Ghana.
1D1F was a major NPP campaign message that won the hearts and minds of every Ghanaian and indeed was one of the reasons the Ghanaian voters voted massively for NPP in 2016. True to its campaign promise, the NPP government has prioritized in policy implementation since 2017, but where is the place of the Ghanaian women in the policy? How is 1D1F benefitting the Ghanaian women? As a first lady, Samira Bawumia would get these questions answered. She has started with four Shea butter processing factories in the Shea nut-rich regions in the northern part of Ghana, and she will never change.
Samira believes that without women role in the implementation of 1D1F, the policy will never be complete. 1D1F promotes domestication of our local products. Like the northern women in the shea nut-rich regions, Ghanaian women in all districts are the main producers of the goods and services Ghanaians consume.
Production of local foods, their distribution, marketing them to households, and making them ready on dining tables are mainly handled by the Ghanaian woman. Samira believes they deserve their rightful place in the 1D1F policy implementation.
In her engagement with Diaspora4Bawumia, Samira cited the special case of the local cooking oils that are mainly produced through traditional methods. She believes this sector could be prioritized by the 1D1F policy. She would make a special case in the Bawumia-led NPP government to facilitate the production of palm oil, peanut oil, palm kernel oil, and shea butter oil on an industrial scale.
The women who are already in the production through the traditional method would be empowered through necessary training, start-up capital, co-operative unions, and tax holidays to boost production as small-scale factory owners. Also, a strong advocacy would be made to give tax holidays to investors to attract them into the sector, to build large-scale factories to employ more women who are already in the cooking oil business. Consequently, jobs will be created for Ghanaian women, Ghanaians will consume made in Ghana cooking oil, and this will contribute considerably to saving the Ghana Cedi from the free fall. Women economic empowerment through Her First Ladyship, Samira Bawumia.
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The Communication and Research Directorate
(Diaspora4DMB)
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