Fashion: CNN Celebrates Heel the World.......

"Deegbe is determined to put Ghana firmly on the map of luxury shoemaking: "Eventually people will not think of HTW and question it anymore -- people will think about it and think quality and think the most awesome brand coming out of Africa," he says." CNN

Made in Ghana: Luxury shoes put sparkle in your step

Dated: 9th April 2014

Every week, African Start-Up follows entrepreneurs in various countries across the continent to see how they are working to make their business dreams become reality.

 

(CNN) -- Fred Deegbe was standing outside a shop window five years ago, marveling at the shiny pair of wing-tip Oxfords he'd just bought, when he started wondering whether such beautiful designer shoes could ever be produced in his country, Ghana.

"Impossible," a nearby shoeshine boy purposefully declared after being asked by Deegbe; later, at home, his friends were equally dismissive. "Everyone was convinced that these high-end shoes could not be made in Ghana," recalls Deegbe.

 

Everyone? Not exactly.

 

Despite not having any real knowledge about the shoe market, Deegbe, who was a banker at the time, decided to prove them all wrong and take on the world's leading shoe brands. Soon after, he teamed up with a friend and started Heel The World (HTW), a high-end shoemaking company based in Accra, Ghana.

 

That was in 2011, and one year later Deegbe quit his banking job to dedicate himself fully in his new ambitious venture.

 

"We started buying machines (and) brought them over to the house," says the young entrepreneur, who launched the company from his parents' garage. "We had no intentions of starting the factory in the house, but one thing led to another and we just had to start."

 

 

Currently, HTW has five full-time employees.

 

 

Wearing it with pride

Inside the HTW workshop, underneath fashion images hanging from its bright yellow walls, the startup's workers are busy cutting pieces of leather and gluing soles at their work stations.

The materials are imported from places like the United States and Italy but all shoes are crafted by hand here.

 

It's a meticulous task, one the HTF staff tend to perform while wearing their bespoke creations -- anything from retro brogues and elegant loafers to stylish dress slippers and eye-catching Oxfords.

"They want their friends to ask them, 'Where did you buy that?' and they say, 'no, we made it; we made it in a garage, in Accra, with our own hands,'" says Deegbe.

 

 

The company produces a wide variety of styles.

 

 

Convincing people

HTW, which currently has five full-time employees, has built a website to take orders and relies heavily on social media for marketing. Yet, one problem for some potential customers is the cost -- from between $200 to $400, the price would be limiting anywhere, let alone in Ghana, where many people are still hit by economic hardship despite the country's remarkable growth and record poverty reduction in recent years.

 

"That's an uphill challenge that we still face," says Deegbe. "It's because most of this stuff is imported," he explains.

 

 

"You have to convince people that these things can be made here and these things is worth all the money we are asking for," he adds.

 

Proving doubters wrong

HTW has also started producing accessories such as so-called "empowerment beads" -- these are handcrafted creations made of glass and brass that are designed to represent all the hard work that goes into reaching a goal.

 

It's something Deegbe has learned first-hand, having taken the challenge of launching HTW to demonstrate that a high-end shoe brand can be made in Ghana.

 

"The good things is we're all quite young in the company -- everyone's under 30 -- and we have a long time to prove people wrong," says Deegbe.

 

"Eventually people will not think of HTW and question it anymore -- people will think about it and think quality and think the most awesome brand coming out of Africa," he adds.　

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/09/business/made-in-ghana-high-end-shoes/index.html

　

　

Paulina says: A big congratulations to team Heel the World who can now boast of having CNN profile their brand --clap clap!!!

This pioneer of made-in-Ghana shoe brand truly deserves the accolade -and much success -they have paid their dues, but they mustn't 'rest on their laurels'!!!

CNN is an incredible platform, offering uber exposure --but that means ---the world will be watching and taking note (and some might be copying -welcome to the real world). Thus, its now time for team Heel the World to up their game, luxe-up their website, get stockists in London, NYC, Paris and SA --and keep their FB fan page up-to-date!!! But all in all -good luck to team Heel The World. x

For more info about Heel The World visit: http://htwshoes.com/site/

https://www.facebook.com/Heel.the.World.HTW
http://instagram.com/htwshoes


P.S ---The Heel The World's write-up by CNN goes to show just how very important it is for the likes of bloggers/websites/Ghanaian media-rites (and beyond) like me to write about made-in-Ghana labels/services/goods!!!

We also need to be aware/understand that the world (because of the Internet/Social media) has gotten smaller -thus, one can no longer afford to limit oneself or brand or services et al1!! Also, it is imperative that Ghanaian media-folk start to add contact details to all articles -otherwise what is the point????

Note, this............"I will talk/write about you to big-up my own website/blog/newspaper but I won't bring business your way ---green eyed monster must stop --now!!!! Just saying...

Sweet Charity: Menaye Donkor Muntari commissions land for new Menaye School of Hope at Konongo....

Menaye Donkor Muntari, wife of Sulley Ali Muntari, on Tuesday March 25^th 2014, along with chiefs and elders of Konongo in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, commissioned land demarcated as site of the next Menaye School of Hope.

The school, which will operate from kindergarten to junior high level, will be the second such school being wholly funded and operated by Menaye Charity Organisation, which is run by Mrs. Muntari. Menaye School of Hope presently operates at Agona Asafo in the Central Region of Ghana, and provides free, quality education for deprived and rural children.

The land for the school was donated by the chief of Konongo, Nana Batafo Acheampong to Menaye Charity Organisation, as a gesture because Menaye’s husband, Sulley Ali Muntari hails from the town of Konongo. Present at the commissioning to lend her support was Hajia Kande, mother of Sulley Ali Muntari.

Credit: Text & Photos: http://www.enewsgh.com/enews/2014/04/13/menaye-donkor-chiefs-commission-land-for-next-school-of-hope/

Paulina says: Its truly heart warming to see one of Ghana Rising's Fave fashionistas doing good worksss back home in our sweet motherland Ghana.....we must let it inspire us. God Bless the Muntari's --our Menaye's not just a pretty face -Amen!!!

　

For more info about Menaye Donkor Muntari's School of Hope visit: http://www.menaye.com/
https://twitter.com/MenayeDonkor

Elitism and Nepotism: Angola & the dos Santos clan...................

Day Eight
Angola
Luanda
Our efforts to track down Angola’s chefs grandes – the big chiefs who run the economy – have yielded one notable catch: José Filomeno dos Santos, the thirtysomething head of the sovereign wealth fund.

©Joost de Raeymaeker/AP

Jose Filomeno dos Santos

José Filomeno is the son of president José Eduardo dos Santos, Africa’s second-longest-serving ruler (34 years), a few weeks behind Equatorial Guinea’s. That is a touchy subject, as I discovered during a two-hour conversation at the fund’s headquarters, a swanky new building which counts Halliburton, the US oil services company, among its occupants.

Dos Santos speaks fluent English, alongside his native Portuguese. In case of miscommunication, a Swiss note-taker and two PR advisers flown in from Dubai are present. Dos Santos, tall and elegantly attired, greets me with a friendly smile and a slightly nervous handshake.

“I was born in the late 1970s in a communist state,” he says. “All of the shops were government-run. There were times when we could only find rice or sugar for months ... The country was invaded by South Africa and we were living at war. It was a rather dim beginning.”

The civil war following independence from Portugal in 1975 was a brutal proxy for the cold war. The ruling MPLA fought alongside Cuban tank columns, with Russian advisers in the shadows. The Unita opposition was backed by the might of the South African military. The fighting only stopped in 2002 when Israeli intelligence helped the MPLA to track down and kill Jonas Savimbi, head of Unita. All Angolans therefore speak of a young country, barely more than 10 years old.

The legacy of the war is legion: four million people displaced, a lost generation of doctors, teachers and professionals; once-fertile land still infested with landmines; roads, bridges and infrastructure destroyed; and a chronic reliance on oil production, which supplies 80 per cent of government revenues. This makes it doubly hard to encourage the diversification the Angolan economy desperately needs.

Dos Santos avoids using the term “oil curse” but in soft-spoken tones he describes how Angola is shifting from a command to a market-based economy. “I think the battle has been won. The party has lived through socialism. Today we live in different times.”

The wealth fund is supposed to nudge the reforms along – though empty desks in adjoining offices suggest this will be a slow process. With $5bn to invest, the fund is billed as a nest egg for future generations and a catalyst for income growth at home, chiefly via venture capital opportunities. Some 7.5 per cent of the fund is reserved for social investment.

©Joost de Raeymaeker/AP

Luanda

So why is dos Santos the best person for the top job? Is it entirely coincidental that he is the president’s son? And is he being groomed to succeed his father?
A frisson follows. Dos Santos explains that he followed his mother, an Angolan diplomat, to Sweden and the UK. He wearily trots out his qualifications: two business degrees in London (Regent’s University; a masters at Westminster University). Then he declares, emphatically, “This is an opportunity for the country.”

The president’s son believes that the fund is pioneering a new, more transparent approach to investing, distinct from the war era, where army commanders and the MPLA retained strong commercial interests. But surely these ties endure?

Dos Santos weighs his answer. “You are a state entity, where you have to think and act as a private one but you also have a lot of political pressure … this will not be a revolution overnight.”

Not every Angolan is so patient. Elias Isaac, a burly activist for the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, an NGO funded by George Soros, sums up Angola’s postwar challenge: “We have a multi-party democracy but we don’t have a pluralist society. There is no space for the opposition.”
Over lunch, Isaac describes how MPLA cells have infiltrated the private sector, while big business is dominated by former generals and the party. “It’s just like Russia – nothing has changed.”

Asked about the new sovereign wealth fund, Isaac says: “The president missed a great opportunity. He could have risked not appointing someone close to him. Instead he confirmed our suspicions of elitism and nepotism.”

Three giant portions of beef, chicken and rice arrive. We tuck in. Suddenly four men in slick dark suits slip through the front door and place themselves directly in Isaac’s line of sight. The activist is visibly spooked. One of the presumed state goons ostentatiously pulls out his mobile phone. Our conversation stutters to a halt.

Minutes later, we are back outside in the rain, watching the cars crawl through rivers of water and an Angolan tropical storm.


Day Nine
Angola
Luanda, Luanda Sul
The missile-shaped memorial to Dr António Agostinho Neto, fisherman, guerrilla, poet and founding father of modern Angola, stands in a vast parade-ground space close to the Atlantic shoreline. It took 20 years and millions of scarce dollars to build. Inside the marble memorial, imposing statues representing the proletariat line the corridor leading to Neto’s garlanded tomb. The place feels like Moscow, circa 1976.

Lionel Barber in front of the Neto memorial, Luanda

Today, Angolans appear respectful of the past but desperate for a better future. Mass poverty grates against a tiny rich elite. Mario Cruz, a 35-year-old executive at Banco Atlantico, says the struggle between old and new is best captured by the view from his plush office overlooking dozens of razed shacks in the Chicala district.

“That used to be beach,” says Mario, “but in 1992, when the war started again, thousands of refugees from the countryside squatted there. It was the only safe place. Now it’s going to become a beach again.”

There are signs of change in Luanda: an impressive two-lane promenade, a construction boom and the rapid growth of automatic telling machines as Angolans take up bank accounts. (They still prefer hard cash: our modest guest house demanded $1,500 for three nights on arrival – or no beds. We paid up.)

“Angola will move even faster in future,” says Mario, who returned in 2002 after studying in England. Why so confident? “Because two-thirds of the [21 million] population is under 25; there are more than 15 million cellphones; and there are more than three million Facebook followers.”

That still leaves huge challenges in education and health, a lack of trained professionals for government service – and corruption. But at least there is evidence of postwar reconciliation. Dos Santos Sr appointed as head of the armed forces a former Unita commander.

The president’s inner circle may be worth untold millions but he himself has avoided visible excess: he spent a fortune on a stylish new parliament building rather than constructing an African strongman’s palace. Aged 71, he represents a certain stability even though the question of succession looms large.

©Javier Blas

Angola’s new parliament building

In the evening, we brave crushing traffic jams and take the 18km ride to Luanda Sul, the luxury, high-rise metropolis built as an extension to the capital. We arrive 80 minutes later. As I stride in yellow Jacob Zuma T-shirt and blue jeans through an utterly soulless landscape, two young Angolans offer the crooked right-arm salute of the ANC and bellow out: “Amandla [Power] … ”

I salute back, but omit the correct response: “ … Awethu [to the people].”

On the journey home, I ask our guide what the people in the shanty- towns of Luanda make of Luanda Sul. Surely it is a monument to inequality?

“No,” he replies, “the poor people see that people have become rich and they think that one day the money will come to them.”

After a pause, he adds: “If sometimes we complain at home, our mother and father criticise us. They simply say: no more war.”



Paulina says: What can I say, this can never happen in Ghana ---for that we are thankful!!!!! Do read the full article via: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5f8fbaee-c049-11e3-bfbc-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2ygdBSUZh

“I am woman, I bend i don’t break!”-Chozenwoman

 

I am not in a competition with anyone else. I run my own race. I have no desire to play the game of being better than everyone else around me, in any way, shape or form. I just aim to improve, to become a better person than I was. that’s me and I’m free.

Amen!!!!

Politricks: Happy days are here again.....

So long sad times, go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times, cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past

 

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

 

Altogether, shout it now, theres no one
Who can doubt it now
So lets tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again

 

Your cares and troubles are gone
There'll be no more from now on, from now on

 

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy times, happy nights
Happy days are here again!

 

Songwriters
AGER, MILTON/YELLEN, JACK

Published by
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
 

"Borrowing is like a wedding, paying back is like mourning." BBC Africa's proverb of the day.

Paulina says: May the government of Ghana take heed and stop borrowing!!!  Please do not make slaves of the next ten generations of Ghanaians.........