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Edith Wheatland, providing livelihood for women, children in rural areas

Ms Edith Wheatland
Edith Akorsah Wheatland, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rockland Farms Limited, one of the most established poultry companies in Ghana, has gained popularity over the years for her support to women, children and the less privileged in rural communities.
Ms Wheatland is also a youth empowerment advocate and passionate about initiatives geared towards supporting persons with disabilities.
Ms Edith Wheatland is committed to taking concrete steps through her livelihood programmes to ensure that rural children have access to good nutrition in school.
The journey towards creating a successful business through which she carries out her Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and philanthropic activities started in 2013 when Ms Wheatland decided to relocate to Ghana after several years in the United States where she worked with her uncle.
Ms Wheatland was moved to bridge the gap in the poultry industry where a minimal percentage of women owned poultry farms though they contributed largely to the labour force.
She then decided to quit the job in the US, relocate to Ghana and invest her savings from working abroad to set up a poultry farm with 8000 birds in the Ashanti Region to provide jobs for women and also become a force in the poultry industry.
The farm over the years had developed into an established business which can boast of a 100,000 capacity poultry farm with over 200,000 birds per cycle, a processing facility and commercial feed milling companies. The company have over 100 workers.
The newest product line from Rockland Farms, Akoko Tasty, is currently Ghana’s most popular packaged, locally produced, pre-cut chicken.
In keeping women and youth at the centre of her business, Edith supports over 6,000 smallholder farmers, with over 90 percent of them being women and youth.
She drew inspiration from the Sustainable Development Goals Five, Gender Equality and Women Empowerment to employ more women.
Ms Wheatland takes pride in the fact that, through her efforts, women had been engaged in the poultry business to reduce the male dominance.
These farmers receive inputs, technical support, equipment and seed money to mobilise savings and lending among themselves in order to profitably cultivate maize, as well as improve their livelihoods. Rockland Farms provides training and other support to 7,500 maize outgrowers (two acres average) who supply maize to feed the farm.
Rockland Farms supports children’s nutrition in schools in the Ashanti Region with farm supplies of over 240 free crates of eggs to 10 schools in Sekyere Kumawu and Sekyere Central districts from which over 6000 children benefit every month.
Edith Wheatland is Ghana’s current National Best Female Farmer. She is also a co-awardee of the Feed the Future Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) Prize for promising business ventures in 2018.
She also won the African Agribusiness Woman of the Year at the 2023 African Women in Agribusiness Awards.
The poultry business though, had not been without challenges such as accessing wheat brands to process poultry feed.
Accessing working capital has also been a major challenge especially for women in the poultry sector.
Ms Wheatland has called on the government to invest into the local poultry industry to provide jobs for women to take care of their children.
Raised by a single mother and the difficulties she faced, Ms Wheatland is always empathetic about women and working towards providing the source of livelihood for women to care for their children without stress.
Going forward, she is optimistic of a great future where more women would be involved in the poultry industry and contribute to sustaining their families and the country at large.
By Michael D. Abayateye
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NHIA set to boost its cybersecurity and IT Infrastructure

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), in partnership with a leading private cybersecurity solutions provider in Ghana, CyberHawk Limited, is advancing the Authority’s digital infrastructure to ensure seamless operations.
This is to safeguard the Authority’s digital technologies and maintain the trust of active members of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
In this context, the NHIA Management Information System (MIS) Directorate in the Head Office, on February 11, 2024, launched a three-day brainstorming session on the organization’s cybersecurity enhancement agenda.
The MIS Directorate Ag. Director, Mr. Daniel Blankson explained that the collaborative meeting aimed to scrutinize the NHIA’s Information Technology architecture, identifying potential risks and gapsto enhance its cybersecurity posture.
“By leveraging CyberHawk Limited’s expertise, the NHIA seeks to fortify its defenses against cyber threats, protecting sensitive information and maintaining the trust of its members.”
Mr. Blankson applauded the synergy between the two organizations and underscored the Authority’s commitment to embracing cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions to drive its mission forward.
The Head of Information Security and Standards Unit, in the MIS Directorate, Mr. Ebenezer Hooper, highlighted the Authority’s significant milestone on the digital transformation journey.
According to him, the NHIA is actively engaged in fully adopting and implementing modern digital systems to improve its operations.
He said, “The three-day brainstorming meeting will culminate in the development of a robust IT infrastructure, as well as strategic plans to translate security implementations into tangible IT cost savings for the organization.”
“There is the need to form a steering committee or IT advisory committee, operated under the Board, so that they can pay more attention in protecting the huge IT investment while ensuring cyber security-related policies are well protected,” he added.
The Project Manager of CyberHawk Limited, Mr. Chetan Narayana Murthy, lauded the collaboration and anticipated that it would empower the NHIA to implement comprehensive cybersecurity measures.
According to him, “This is a huge project that will greatly benefit the NHIA by implementing robust cybersecurity measures, safeguarding their systems, and ultimately protecting the sensitive information of NHIA members and healthcare providers.”
A Senior Manager of IT infrastructure, Mr. David Asare Addo, and his colleague, a Senior Manager of Applications, Mr. Enock Afanyi, with the MIS Directorate, gave an overview of the NHIA’s current technological landscape.
Present at the meeting were representatives from the Claims, Membership and Regional Operations (MRO), Research, Policy, Monitoring, and Evaluation (RPME), Corporate Affairs, the Audit, Administration, and Human Resource Directorates.
Story By : Vivian Arthur
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Swedru All Blacks back to winning ways, Roshan humble King Faisal

Sekondi Rospak FC made it eight wins in eight successive home games after three second-half goals from John Amoah, Joseph Ntow and Stephen Anthony Kofi. John Amoah opened the scoring in the 55th minute after a barren first half. Joseph Ntow added to the tally in the 56th minute before Stephen Anthony Kofi rounded things up in the 74th minute to give Rospak a 3-0 win over former Premier League side King Faisal.
Elsewhere at Swedru – leaders Swedru All Blacks humbled PAC Academy in an emphatic 2-0 win. Zayat Bubakari scored first for Swedru All Blacks in the 27th minute before Rudolf Junior Nana Kwasi Mensah made it 2-0 in the 34th minute. Swedru All Blacks are top of the table with 36 points – 4 points ahead of second placed Rospak FC.
Meanwhile, Former Premier League side Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs recorded their fourth successive home victory after beaten New Edubiase United 2-1 at the Robert Mensah Park. Enoch Odoom struck first for Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs in the 19th minute but Steven Asante equalized for New Edubiase United before halftime. After the interval, Godfred Eshun scored from distance in the 65th minute to help Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs secure all the points.
Here are the results in Zone Two
