Esther Afua Ocloo
Esther Afua Ocloo | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 18, 1919 |
| Died | February 8, 2002 (aged 82) |
| Cause of death | Pneumonia |
| Known for | Pioneer of microlending and campaigner for economic empowerment of women. |
| Spouse | Stephen (married) |
| Children | 4 |
Esther Afua Ocloo (April 18, 1919, Peki Dzake - February 8, 2002 ) was a Ghanaian entrepreneur and pioneer of microlending.[1][2] She was born Esther Afua Nkulenu.
She was one of the founders of Women's World Banking in 1976, with Michaela Walsh and Ela Bhatt, and served as its first chair of trustees. She received the 1990 Africa Prize for Leadership.
Early life and education
Afua Nkulenu was born in the Volta Region to George Nkulenu, a blacksmith, and his wife Georgina, a potter and farmer. Sent by her grandmother to a Presbyterian primary school, she proceeded to a coeducational boarding school at Peki Blengo. Poverty forced her to travel there weekly with food supplies which she cooked herself. She won a scholarship to Achimota School, travelling there on money provided by an aunt, and studied there from 1936 to 1941, when she obtained the Cambridge School Certificate. The first person to start a formal food processing business in the Gold Coast, she built up a business supplying marmalade and orange juice to Achimota School and the RWAFF. Sponsored by Achimota College to visit England from 1949 to 1951, she was the first black person to obtain a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London and to take the post-graduate Food Preservation Course at Long Ashton Research Station, Department of Horticulture, Bristol University.[3]
Business activity
Expanding her business, she again visited England in 1956 to develop recipes for commercial canning. To face down prejudice against locally produced goods in Ghana, she formed a manufacturers' association and helped organize the first Made-in-Ghana goods exhibition in 1958. Encouraged by Nkrumah, she was elected the first President - from 1959 to 1961 - of what became the Federation of Ghana Industries. In 1964 she became the first Ghanaian woman to be Executive Chairman of the National Food and Nutrition Board of Ghana. In the mid-1960s she also moved into the tie and dye textile business.
From the 1970s onwards she was involved at a national and international level in the economic empowerment of women. She was an adviser to the Council of Women and Development from 1976 to 1986, a member of Ghana's national Economic Advisory Committee from 1978 to 1979 and a member of the Council of State in the Third Republic of Ghana from 1979 to 1981. An advisor to the first World Conference on Women in Mexico in 1975, she promoted the availability of credit to women as a founding member and the first chairman of the Board of Directors of Women World Banking from 1979 to 1985.[3]
Family
Esther was married to Stephen and they have four children, Vincentia Canacco her daughter, and her three sons Vincent Malm, Christian Biassey and Steven Junior.
Death
Esther died in Accra, Ghana after she developed pneumonia in 2002. She received a state funeral in Accra, and was buried at her hometown, Peki Dzake.[3]
Honours
- Honored by Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana for meritorious Service to Church –1982.
- Honored by all women association of Ghana (AWAG) for meritous service (1985).
- Recognized and certified by the editorials board of Biographical publication, England, as one of the Foremost Women of the twentieth Century.
- As co-winner (with Olusengun Obasanjo) the first woman to win the African leadership prize for sustainable end of hunger by the hunger project, New York- 1990.
- Honored by International Federation of Business and Professional Women –1991
- National Arts and Culture Award (By Ghana National Commission On Culture 1992).
- The first woman laureate of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize, Switzerland, 1993.
- Hounded by Junior Achievement (Global leadership Award, 1995)
- Honored by First Global Women Investment Exhibition by Ghana Association of Women entrepreneurs (GAWE)-July 1996.
- Honored by Peki Union for tremendous contribution and dedication to the welfare of her hometown Peki, Ghana.
- Honored by Women World Banking Ghana in May 1995.
- Honored by Women World Banking International in Beijing, September 1995. Hounered by Beijing Women of Rochester New York ASA as one of 100 Heroines for cause of women in the 20th century, October 1998.
- Ghana’s Millennium Excellence Awards for Women and Gender Balance Development- 1999.
Notes
- ^ Douglas Martin, Esther Ocloo, 83, African Leader and Microlending Pioneer, Dies, obituary in New York Times March 10, 2002 accessed at Africa Prize website [1] April 12, 2007
- ^ Esther Ocloo Passes Away, February 8, 2002, GhanaWeb
- ^ a b c Amenumey, D. E. K. (2002). "Dr (Mrs) Esther Afua Ocloo (née Nkulenu)". Outstanding Ewes of the 20th Century: Profiles of Fifteen Firsts. Accra: World Publishing Services. pp. 135–42. ISBN 9964-978-83-9.