Some Ghanaians living in the diaspora who have all experienced frustrations from middlemen have teamed up to set up a company to ensure nobody else loses money to middlemen or artisans.
The team has created an online platform; Adwumapa On Demand Services, to link clients to artisans through the APP or Website.
Speaking on Morning Starr with Francis Abban Co-Founder for the company Eugene Afum Agyei explained artisans are screened through a vigorous process including background checks with the police before being enlisted onto the platform where anybody can go and request for services.
In sharing his experience, Mr. Agyei who is an engineer with specialisation in Artificial Intelligence based in the United States related to monies lost through getting middlemen and artisans to undertake some projects for him back home in Ghana.
According to him, the team has plans of creating a tech-hub in Ghana in the near future that can rival the silicon Vallies in the US and Kenya
“We are in to ensure we deliver as we say. We have the hope that maybe in the next 5 to 6 years, we will be one of the biggest tech hubs because we have the intention of creating one of the biggest tech hub companies like the Silicon Valley in Ghana. When you go to Kenya, an African country, IT is a very big thing there. If IT is given the prominence it deserves, trust me so many things in the country will change.
“We have intentions of going to all the universities in Ghana, we want to employ the young graduates coming up who are into computer science and information technology and bring them on board. I have worked internationally for almost seven years and I know what IT entails,” Mr. Agyei stated.
He continued: “I know what IT people need around the world. So our intention is to groom all those students who do computer science and all those things in the universities in Ghana and in the future we will together create a big software company. We can then create our own software in the country and probably help to solve these data issues in Ghana.”
In an interview with Starr News Manager for Adwumapa On Demand Services, Doris Owusu Konadu also disclosed the company was established by likeminded Ghanaians with bitter experiences in getting things done for them in their absence.
“Our shareholders are young people who are diasporans they live outside the country. They’ve had one bitter pill or the other with contractors when they were doing their projects in Ghana
They lost a lot of money and they sat down and really thought through and came up with this platform”
Doris enumerated the challenges the team had to go through in trying to establish the company from registration to office accommodation to securing permits among others.
“The challenges we went through facing the setting up of the company if I tell you from registering the company to getting a permanent residence to buying the supply and equipment to work with. Starting from how to register your company, the go and come, the pay here, the wait it’s not your turn, the requirements, the Ghana card and the other stuff, it’s serious and then you come to getting an office space. Now everybody in Ghana charges a rent in dollars. I mean do we spend dollars in Ghana and then the dollar quotations they give you are very high; Thousand dollars, five hundred, seven hundred dollars. Who has that kind of money and they want two to three years advance payment. It was really challenging, I tell you.”
According to her, with the launch of the platform, people can just download the Adwumapa App or visit the website; Adwumapa.com to request for services ranging from handymen, hairdressers, fashion designers, beauticians, carpenters, masons, plumbers to barbers among others.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Ibrahim Alhassan
