The Ghanaian Woman Who Went From Unemployed Graduate to Award-Winning Farmer: Nana Baaba Quartey
- Nana Baaba Fynnba Quartey had a dream at a young age to become a lawyer and part-time farmer and pursued a degree in Business Administration at Perez University College in that regard
- She completed university and applied for several corporate jobs for three years with no luck until she decided to start poultry farming and piggery with her father
- The Mfantseman old girl has been running her farm for four years and won Best Agri-woman of the year by Women In Entrepreneurship Ghana award scheme twice in 2021 and 2022
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Not many women in Ghana, especially female university graduates, are known to be full-time farmers. The time and the extreme physical work farming of any kind require puts many young women off.
But Nana Baaba Fynnba Quartey did not grow up as your typical 'girlie' girl. In fact, at a young age, her dream was to reach a point where she could venture into farming as a hobby alongside any career path she found herself in.
Her interesting reveal got YEN.com.gh asking how that farming dream came about, and her response was, "I just love watching things grow. It brings me inner joy I can't explain".
Source: UGC
It is no surprise that today, Baaba runs an animal farm in Gomoa Abonyi in the Central Region and her works have seen her win the Women In Entrepreneurship Ghana Award for Best Agri-woman of the Year in both 2021 and 2022.
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Being the inspiring Ghanaian female farmer she is, YEN.com.gh has highlighted the life journey of Nana Baaba for its cherished readers.
Graduating from Perez University College and struggling to land a corporate job
Born to a father who wanted his first child to be a son, Baaba had to go through her upbringing being treated as the 'male child' her father never had. This made her tougher and stronger and prepared her more for her dream of being a farmer someday. However, the main career options she wanted to venture into were Law and Journalism; hence she applied to Mfantseman Girls Senior High School to study General Arts, after which she moved to Perez University College to pursue a degree in Business Administration.
After school, Baaba joined her father in running his private secondary school, Jabez Dominic Educational Institute, while she searched for a job in her field of studies. The search went on for three good years with no positive results, and during that time, her father's school experienced a massive blow which called for a shutdown.
"Free SHS was introduced by the government, and that was when everything went downhill. There was a free option, so students stopped attending Jabez Dominic Educational Institute, and we eventually had to close down the school. It was not easy at all", she told YEN.com.gh.
Venturing into animal farming after 3 years of unemployment and winning Best Agri-woman of the year award
Jabez Dominic Educational Institute was left dormant for some time, and Baaba was still without a job. One day, however, she thought of the dream hobby she had had since childhood, and just like that, she got the idea to start something small on a portion of her father's school land.
"We were both there doing nothing, so after I thought of starting the farm, I had a discussion with my father, and we agreed to start. My dad had good intentions and a great vision for the school, so he bought quite a vast land which we used a part of it to start."
The father and daughter quickly ventured into poultry farming and piggery and have been running them for four years now. The recent economic challenges, however, have been a huge setback for the business as feed prices and other raw materials have increased, and sales have also dwindled. Nevertheless, Baaba, being the driven young woman she is, continues to work hard to stay afloat. She puts her products out there through the effective use of social media platforms, word of mouth and recommendations.
In 2021, her hard work and perseverance saw her getting nominated by the Women In Entrepreneurship Ghana for Best Agri-woman of the year, which she ended up winning. Baaba swept same the same award in 2022. As part of her achievements, the young goal-getter is the vice president of the Gomoa Central Farmers' Association.
Starting an NGO, Cruize Empire Foundation Ghana, to offer support to her community youth
Source: UGC
Baaba loves to see things and people grow, and true to her nature, she decided to develop an organisation that would help the youth in her community blossom to their fullest potential. She also wanted the organisation to be an avenue where troubled kids could seek counselling concerning anything that bothers them. Speaking to YEN.com.gh, Baaba shared a personal experience that pushed her to start her NGO.
"You see, being the firstborn, my parents were the only people l could talk to, but l saw them as old people, so it was difficult for me to talk to them about some things. Unlike me, my younger sisters had me, so they could always confide in me and tell me things.
In that regard, I wanted to be in a position where teenagers could freely come to me with their concerns and help them avoid certain mistakes", she said.
Baaba's NGO also helps the youth acquire various vocational and technical skills they can capitalize on someday due to the rapid increase in unemployment in the country.
"Considering how bad things are and no jobs in the system, this is the time they all need to learn good skills that can generate income for them because, without that, the future is doomed."
Baaba believes that possessing just one skill or having just one source of income is not the best financial strategy; hence she has ventured into male fashion on the side. According to her, she would gladly accept a corporate job offer when the opportunity presents itself, but until then, she plans to keep working as a farmer and part-time fashion designer.
For Ghanaian youth who have been unemployed and are still home waiting on a corporate job opportunity, the graduate farmer advises them to acquire a skill and try generating money from it while they continue searching for 9-5 jobs.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
