Green Butterfly, an eco-friendly Ghanaian company, Saturday held the ‘1st Saturday Market’ at the Department of Parks and Gardens in Accra.
Participating companies showcased their products which ranged from locally manufactured textiles, footwears, and clothing, crockeries and cook wares, jewelries, foods and drinks skin and hair products, decorative artifacts among a host of other Ghana-made wares and services.
Madam Yasmeen Helwani, Director of Green Butterfly, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the reason for bringing together such a huge pool of businesses was to promote an eco-friendly culture via the patronage of naturally Ghanaian made products.
The exhibition, she also said, was a platform to help grow the country’s economy by showing what indigenous Ghanaian companies had to offer to the consuming market.
‘It is important that we preserve our local environment and economy hence the need to support our artisans both in Ghana and across Africa. That is, small scale businesses es
pecially those owned by women. we started this green butterfly market every third Saturday of each month to help the marginalised but talented artisans who don’t have shops to also get the needed patronage, ‘she said.
She said the event, held for 14 years, would help mitigate capital flight from the country and continent in general because it promoted the patronage of locally manufactured products and services only.
‘…We are encouraging our monies to stay local instead of sending them outside to purchase goods in that case we are strengthening our local economy,’ she said.
Harriet Akosua Yeboah, the CEO of Ahwremia Gallery – an art and craft company, said the Green Butterfly’s exhibition programme offered an opportunity for her to showcase her creative abilities.
‘These are not stuff we have gone to buy, and we are selling. They are things that we have created with our hands so when we come to Green Butterfly, we get the kind of clients interested in our eco-friendly aspects of our business such as recycl
ing,’ she said.
For Wood Artists such as Isaac Agyei, the event was not only about money, but the exposure.
‘…If you are in your workshop doing stuff and you don’t have a showroom, this platform is another way to exhibit your things to get new clients. That is why I came here to participate’, he said.
Since 2010 when it was founded, Green Butterfly has empowered several indigenous Ghanaian small-scale businesses and their owners in several sectors of the economy to come to the limelight with the aim of helping them grow and spread their tentacles across the country and to other parts of the continent.
The aim is to help create indigenous wealth and much needed employment in the country and beyond.
Source: Ghana News Agency