She was on her way to becoming a nun but as destiny would have it, Felicia Twumasi is today CEO of food processing and packaging company, Homefoods.
Her motivation to start a business started from an early age when she was in a convent school at Elmina in the Central Region. The independent Felicia was put in-charge of the school’s storehouse at the age of 8.
“I always followed instruction and the Sisters saw the potential in me”, she recounted.
But what would push her to start her own business was an observation she made.
“Any time school re-opened, I realized some of my mates were absent. When I inquired, the common story would be that their father had passed away and their mother could not take care of them”. She told herself, she would not allow her children to go through that.
So in 1995, at her kitchen table, Felicia conceived the idea of Homefoods. She knew she wouldn’t get it wrong entering into the food business.
“Whether you are poor or rich you have to eat. So I chose food and I asked myself, what do we use in the kitchen every day?
After careful research, Felicia decided to process palm oil. All she had was a trinket her mother gave her as a gift. She sold the trinket for 500 dollars.
A dream she had, however, would change the future of Homefoods.
“I saw containers move out of a yard, then I decided I would export my products”, she told Daryl Kwawu.
It seemed a laughable idea to people she told, but Felicia pursued all the same from a rented apartment, with one staff and her daughter.
Very soon, Felicia would get a breakthrough and she would export her first 100 cartons. Today she owns a state-of-the-art factory and exports thousands of food products, not just processed oil to Europe, America and other parts of Africa.
The passion of the Harvard Business School graduate and mother of three to steer Homefoods to become the multi-million dollar company it is today has put her on the international spotlight.
In May this year, Homefoods was awarded premium food product of the year at the Africa Brands Leadership Merit Awards in Nigeria.
Felicia has plans to capture the Ghanaian market. “My business is export-based, so not much of my products are sold here in Ghana but in the future I want to expand my market in Ghana”, she said.
And indeed expansion works are underway. Felicia also wants to expand her market on the continent, especially in East Africa.
Felicia Twumasi Steers one of Africa’s Leading Food Brands
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