Esther Ocloo began by selling marmalade in Accra in 1943. She co-founded Women’s World Banking.
From a small gift and a pot of marmalade to the first food-processing factory in the Gold Coast, Esther Ocloo became a pioneer of microlending for women.
Esther Afua Nkulenu was born in 1919 in the Volta Region of Ghana, then British Togoland, the daughter of a blacksmith and a potter and farmer. As a girl she travelled weekly to a boarding school, carrying food supplies that she cooked for herself to save money. A scholarship took her to Achimota School from 1936 to 1941.
Marmalade, then a factory
In 1943 she used a small gift from her aunt, and skills learned at Achimota, to begin selling marmalade in Accra. She won a contract to supply the school with orange juice made from oranges grown on campus, then another to supply the Royal West African Frontier Force. To fulfil the orders, she took a bank loan and founded Nkulenu Industries, the first food-processing factory in the Gold Coast.
Achimota sponsored her to study in England from 1949 to 1951. She was the first person of African ancestry to earn a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London, and to take the post-graduate food preservation course at Long Ashton Research Station.
Lending to women
In 1976 she co-founded Women’s World Banking with Michaela Walsh and Ela Bhatt, serving as its first chair of trustees. She received the 1990 African Prize for Leadership. Esther Ocloo died in 2002. Her story shows that a loan, and belief in a woman’s business, can change a whole industry.
