Ghana’s Grace Amey-Obeng, one of West Africa’s most successful businesswomen, made her fortune promoting products which emphasised the beauty of black skin, at a time when many of her competitors were selling dangerous skin-bleaching formulas.
The business empire she started a quarter of a century ago with around $100 (£63) now has an annual turnover of between $8 million and $10 million.
Her FC Group of Companies – which includes a beauty clinic, a firm that supplies salon equipment and cosmetics, and a college – has eight branches in Ghana and exports to Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ivory Coast, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Amey-Obeng has won dozens of accolades and industry awards for her skincare beauty products and marketing.
But one of the things that makes her especially proud is her FC Beauty College which, since its opening in 1999, has trained more than 5,000 young people, mostly women.
“It’s like a family bond. I’m so proud that they have managed to go through the programme,” she told the BBC’s series African Dream.
Equally important to her is her role as a medical aesthetician, and she cites seeing a skin condition resolved as something that gives her “joy”.
“I’m so happy that God has given me that talent and that touch to heal people,” she said.
Amey-Obeng studied beauty therapy in the United Kingdom and after graduation, in the 1980s, returned to Ghana.
She knew that in her country women take great pride in their appearance and was convinced that there was a niche market she could “tap into.”
Working out of her bag and going from house to house she advised people on skincare.
Soon, however, she became aware that there was “a lot of skin-bleaching going on,” a trend she found “alarming” and something that is common in much of Africa.
“The women in the market had destroyed their skin with all this kind of beauty products, bleaching products, and so I saw the need for assisting them to reverse the process because otherwise it would become a social problem,” she said.
“The level of damage – in this climate – bleaching does is irreparable,” she added.
Not long after her return to Ghana, she opened her first beauty clinic with financial support from her family.
“I couldn’t access any funds from the bank. I didn’t even think about it because everybody said ‘In this country nobody will give you money.’ ”
Business loan offers came pouring in only after her business had been running for three years.
Although access to bank loans in Ghana might be relatively easier these days, she advises that budding entrepreneurs should take care not to borrow too much…
Read More: bbc.co.uk
