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Ghana Report
Marcopolis presents the Ghana Report focused on investments, doing business, economy and other topics featuring interviews with key executives and government officials. The sectors under review are agriculture, banking, energy, industry, telecom, IT, real estate and more.
InterviewsJune 23, 2021
Medical Equipment, Computers, Furniture and Construction: Kwesi Antwi Appiah Presents Oak-Van Ghana
Kwesi Antwi Appiah, CEO of Oak-Van Ghana Limited
- Written by Sandra Francisco
- Published: June 23, 2021
Interview with Kwesi Antwi Appiah, CEO of Oak-Van Ghana Limited
What is your scope of business?
Oak-Van Limited is a limited liability company that was established in 2011. We started small and now the company is picking up very well. We deal with government organizations, private organizations, NGOs, etc. Our core business is as a general supplier of medical equipment, computers and accessories, office and school furniture, and construction.
In order for you to boost your company and grow further and quicker, what is the major challenge that you face?
With government projects, you need to get funding which you have to fund by yourself. It takes time for the government to pay you back. Normally, they do not give mobilizations. But it is a good business if you have good capital to run with. We also do construction and building roads. In terms of the roads, you need to run your own capital and that becomes a major challenge. Looking at our financial institutions, in Ghana, it is very difficult for our banks to get in when they find out it is a government project. The payment delays a little bit. So, getting funding from the local banks is a challenge. They want to get involved with the projects which are bank projects or UN projects, projects where money has been allocated and the money is there. But with government projects, even though it is budgeted, you need to wait to be paid. That is a major challenge now for us because we are expanding. Within the last few years, we have doubled our clients. The more clients you have, the more financing you need to support your company and to run a company efficiently.
How do you assess the sector itself?
Through this pandemic over the past year, globally, things have not been moving very well economically. But our sector in Ghana has been good, especially for medical supplies. All attention is on medical – face masks, gloves, ventilators, monitors, ultrasound machines, etc. Most of these things must move quickly and logistics becomes a factor also.
How do you stand out? What are your key competitive advantages?
What makes Oak-Van stand out is our professionalism and how we execute our contracts. All our clients are happy with us because of our prompt delivery. We always meet our delivery period estimate. What makes us unique is that as a company, we do not only give what the client wants, but we always do extra. We go above and beyond in terms of pricing, availability of goods, and working with the client's budget. Our clients always recommend us wherever we go which is why our client base keeps increasing.
Where do you get your clients and projects from?
The government agencies, private companies, and NGOs publish their tenders in the paper. If it is in our scope, we go for the tender. We have established contact with over 20 major clients who often call us directly. Even if there are 3 or 4 companies, we can bring our quotes in so they can compare. Because of our past service with them, they often call us to supply to them under sole sourcing. We have about 10 companies now under sole sourcing.
Where do you source your supplies?
Oak-Van is a general supplier of cleansing materials, computers and accessories, general construction, health and safety equipment, office consumables, medical supplies, etc.
Our medical supplies usually come from Turkey. We have a company there that we are partners with in terms of medical supplies. We want to broaden our scope now and get more companies who can partner with us when it comes to medical equipment. Most medical equipment in Ghana is imported. We want to find partners in the US, France, etc. When we get a tender process, we send it to our partners to go through and look at the specifications. They can then create the medical equipment to that specification. We want to broaden our scope in terms of computers. We do not produce computers in Ghana; rather, we still have to import them. Right now, we do not have a partner in computers outside of Ghana. We have some partners in Ghana. If we do not have something in stock, we just contact them and get it from them. But we do not have a bigger client outside which we wish to have. We want to partner with companies like HP, Dell, etc. so we can be very competitive in terms of pricing. When you do not get a major manufacturer, your price goes up. But our tender process is very competitive so if your price is high, you will be kicked out.
What are you doing in furniture supplies?
We have a company in Ghana called ORCA Deco which is one of our partners. We like something different rather than what is already in the market. We do not have any outside partners, but we are trying to get one in Dubai. We are looking for modern, stylish furniture companies to partner with.
What partnerships or investors are you looking for?
Oak-Van Limited is one of the fastest growing companies in Ghana. We supply one of the biggest hospitals in Ghana with medical equipment. There is a lot of demand so we really need investors and partners to come onboard. We are starting a new program where we would also like to partner with other companies getting into the poultry farming industry. The government has opened it up and in the next six months to one year, we will not be importing poultry feeds or poultry products anymore. Our eggs will be here. This is a new area and we have already acquired the land. Ghana is a gateway to Africa and there are a lot of opportunities and easy access to land.
What will be the effect for an investor to come and join you? Will it be to supply the Ghana market as a whole?
The demand in Ghana is huge. No family wakes up and has breakfast without an egg. They have become part of us. In Ghana now, we import eggs into the country because we cannot meet the demand. If we can begin to meet that demand, then we can send it to our neighboring African countries. This is a good business. We have introduced a lot of trade partnership with our neighboring countries. So, it is a good opportunity for us to expand.
What are your activities in road construction?
There are a lot of roads that need to be constructed in Ghana. Normally, the government has named cocoa routes. One of our major products is cocoa so the government targets those roads to work on when the funds are there. We are prepared to get some partnerships for road construction. This year, the government has a lot in their budget for roads. As a company, we are trying to strategize ourselves with some partnerships for road construction because we have been there for so many years. We put our documents together and we want to place a bid.
What are some of your success stories?
As a company, we have enjoyed a lot of success. We have many big companies as our clients such as ENI, Ministry of Gender, the Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana AIDS Commission, National Education Authority, Ministry of Education. We are serving all of them very well. With ENI, we were one of the companies who was selected to supply antibacterial wipes. We were able to deliver within our 60 day projection. Because we delivered on time, the project was able to start on time. It was quite a quick timeline to roll out for the entire country.
What has been your ambition and inspiration?
I had been working with a local bank and started looking for a new job. I went to one of my schoolmates who was running a company that was supplying paper and stationary to private and government institutions. I asked to join him even though he could not pay me at the time but he shared profit. I wanted to do something myself so I took it as a project to learn. I worked with that friend for about 4 to 5 years. I learned and experienced a lot. By God’s grace, we now have our own office, 10 permanent staff, and we have 5 contract staff also.
What is your vision for the next three years? What do you want to have achieved?
We want to be one of the best working in this type of supply chain business. We really want to be known. In the next three years, we will be supplying to not only Ghana, but to BBC, CNN, and other companies. In the next three years, we will have offices all over the world in terms of this supply chain.
What are some of your awards that you are proud of?
We have a forex trading academy called Oak Forex Academy where we trade in the forex market. This award was given to us by one of our brokers. In one of our local associations of supply chains, we won one of the award certificates for the youngest growing company.
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