WhatsApp for easy communication
13-07-2023Written by Prince Essah, Cooperative advisor Ghana
Akyemansa (Fine Flavor) Co-operative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Limited is a dynamic Registered cocoa co-operative in Ghana owned by its producer members, created with the primary aim of optimum wealth creation for its members.
Since Akyemansa (Fine Flavor) Co-operative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Limited was founded from the old Akyemansa cocoa farmers association in 2018, they have created a strong and well managed organisation that serves as a focal point for their farmers and the wider community. They have worked hard to build strong trusting relationship with their members, business partners and stakeholders and they work together to the advantage of their land and people.
Before Agriterra , Akyemansa fine flavor cooperative were facing a lot of challenges such as problems in communication to their various members from different hamlets which created distortion in the flow of information due to the communication gap prior.
Through advice and supervision from Agriterra, they have been able to create an effective WhatsApp group for the executive board and the staff. Due to that sharing of information has been very easy and sometimes they have executive meetings on the platform without necessarily coming to the office from their various destinations.
They have also created separate WhatsApp for the various hamlet leaders. Before this, a meeting with the various hamlets was a challenge for the cooperative because they are all farmers and some also lives in the very remote areas. The benefits of creating this WhatsApp group for the members include easy communication and sharing of information to the members. Getting ready for meetings with them in their various hamlet has also been easy.
Members who cannot read and write are able to make an audio recording in their local dialect and post this on the platform when they want to convey or share ideas on a subject matter on discussion from their various locations.
In summary, upon Agriterra coming on board not quite long, there has been a tremendous improvement in the cooperative which includes: the employment of two permanent staff, easy communication between the board and the staff, and easy sharing of information between the staff and the members of the various hamlets.
