1. Posted on Tuesday 15 February 2011 - 09:21

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   Walter

   

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   Walter Wilson Nana, AfricaNews reporter in Buea, Cameroon

   When Gladys Ngwi Taka looks at some of our food crops get rot, she is very sad. This Mutengene - based food processing engineer, in the Southwest Region of Cameroon, has the knowhow to conserve food crops for as long as it can last. After six years of profound work and studies, in her modest factory, there is no stopping for Gladys.

   

   Many things are happening to her and she is breaking new grounds in and out of Cameroon with her company named Eagle Wings Food & Spices. At the recent Agro – Pastoral Show, held in Ebolowa, capital town of the South Region, Cameroon, Gladys won a Presidential Award for her efforts in transforming food crops into finished products, now available on dining tables across the world. In this exclusive interview with AfricaNews at her Mutengene – based factory, she shared her world with us.
   
   AfricaNews: How did you start this idea of food processing?
   
   Gladys: I have been married for 30 years, a devoted wife and mother. During this time, I have learnt a lot. Naturally, I am convinced I have a gift for changing things – transforming things to make them look better. So, you will see it reflected in the packaging that I do. I design the packaging of my products, especially the aesthetics, but the bottles and the caps, I import them. Initially, I worked for LABOGENIE, CDC and later Cameroon Tea Estate, CTE. I did my best serving those corporations, but it came a time I felt that I was at the ‘wrong place’. So, along the line at CTE, I had to ask for voluntary retirement after our salaries were slashed by half.
   
   It dawned on me; it was time to switch to something else. I came back home, thought about pepper transformation and my mind began churning out new ideas on how I can better do it. Gradually, I started and today, we are moving step by step.
   
   AfricaNews: What happens at Eagle Wings Food & Spices
   
   Gladys: We add value to food crops, spices through transformation and processing. Our premier products have been pepper. We transform pepper into Liquid Pepper, Cayenne Pepper Sauce, Cayenne Pepper Cubes, Spicy Tomato Ketchup, transformation of plantain into plantain fufu or flour, transformation of achu cocoa into flour. With our technology, consumers can now prepare and eat achu in thirty minutes. We also transform constituted achu spices. With our style, even bachelors can now easily eat achu. At Eagle Wings Food & Spices, we have lessened the complications involved in the preparation of achu.
   
   AfricaNews: Let’s know more about your technological knowhow?
   
   Gladys: Our technology is simple. We believe in simplifying the things we do out here. We work as a group. There are other women who work with me. For now, we operate manually, though we are expecting some machines at the close of February 2011. When these machines will be installed, our operations will also be automated. Hopefully, our productivity will also increase.
   
   AfricaNews: Did you give some advice on how the machines should be designed, according to your taste, or you left them at the choice of the manufacturing company?
   
   Gladys: The presentation of the Cayenne Pepper Cubes is my creation. It has never been done before. When I made the first contacts for machines at my choice, the first companies I met did not understand me. When I moved over to South Africa and had discussions with the company – ZONES, I explained my views and vision to the CEO of ZONES and now, they have conceived the machines according to our discussions and they are finalising on them. For the Pepper Sauce and Liquid Pepper, it was easy finding machines for their production. Other people have done them before.
   
   AfricaNews: How safe are your products for human consumption?
   
   Gladys: When you do something with a lot of passion, like I do, you ensure that things are properly and meticulously done. I also contacted the relevant bodies who are out to measure the samples and certify that our compositions are intact. Centre Pasteur in Yaounde, Cameroon, worked on our first analysis. Recently, I discovered that our analysis could also be done at the National Institute of Agricultural Research and Development, IRAD, in Ekona, Southwest Region. I have been in constant touch with the Director of IRAD, Dr. Mafeni and the members of his research team. We are on a good footing and the rest of our upcoming products will be analysed by them.
   
   AfricaNews: For how long have you been in this industry?
   
   Gladys: November 2011 will make the 6th year that we are in. I just wish to go on and on. When I see food crops wasting or getting rot, I feel bad about it. I have so many ways in my mind how I can conserve that crop for the betterment of humanity.
   
   AfricaNews: What are you doing to ensure continuity?
   
   Gladys: Fortunately, I have been formally recognised by the government of Cameroon through the Ministry of Small and Medium Size Enterprises. It all started with the discovery of my products. Officials in the Southwest Regional delegation of the aforementioned ministry saw my products somewhere and were interested to know who is behind them. They made their findings and subsequently got to me. They came to this factory where we are now carrying out this interview.
   
   Thanks to the contacts with those government officials, we have worked closely and they are contributing for the machines I am expecting from South Africa. I am also working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. They are interested in refurbishing the present structure housing the factory. We cannot bring in machines worth FCFA 32 Million and leave them in the current state of the building we have now. We have to redo the current structure. The packaging materials are also not cheap. If you have to succeed, you must have your materials in good quantity. You need the money to buy the materials. So, I place my trust in God that all our wishes will come to fruition someday.
   
   As part of ensuring continuity of this venture I have started, my children work in this factory every holiday period. I watch them very closely. My son in South Africa has a lot of interest in what I do. He is a student of IT engineering but he has plans to get into Business Administration after his IT studies. My daughter in England created the website we have.
   
   My son, who has just travelled to the US, carried along stocks of requests that were made. All of them are putting hands on deck and their wish is that mummy should see success in this venture of hers. One or two of them will someday take over the management from mummy when she will no longer be able to continue or when she will be out of the scene. There is certainly no stopping. We will get going. Every new day, we make efforts to perfect our various products. We are a food and spices company, we will not derail to something else. We will only blossom to a full scale industry.
   
   AfricaNews: What kind of personnel do you have? Skilled? Unskilled?
   
   Gladys: We have skilled and unskilled workers. I do on – the – job – training for most of my staff. I have the Marketers who are already trained in the area of marketing. All they need is the orientation of what we do out here and our vision. I do spend a lot of time on the unskilled staff, training them to catch-up with our styles of doing things. There are certain norms that have to be respected, so, it is critical to regularly school them on our operations. Thank God, many of them have caught up with the training and they are in the train with the rest of us in the company.
   
   AfricaNews: After six years of existence, can Eagle Wings Food & Spices be found in the Cameroonian market and on dining tables across the country?
   
   Gladys: You will certainly find Eagle Wings Food & Spices on many dining tables across Cameroon, except in the northern part of Cameroon. We are yet to break new grounds out there. I am looking for a distributor in that part of Cameroon. In Douala we have somebody already, somebody has indicated to begin distributing in Yaounde. The student body constitute a big avenue for publicity; we have integrated our pepper products in most of the boarding schools across Cameroon.
   
   AfricaNews: What about breaking new grounds out of Cameroon?
   
   Gladys: Our Pepper Spice Up is an award winning pepper spice. It is composed of specially selected and ethnic spices including garlic, ginger, white pepper, onion, tomato and olive oil. It is loved by those in the Diaspora. Cameroonians in the Diaspora have been making requests to their family members back home to shop for our products and send to them. We are currently negotiating distribution strategies with two companies in England. We look forward to settle on one of them, who will represent us in Europe and the USA. I am also an AGOA member as well as the ACESS Training in Canada.
   
   AfricaNews: How has the reception of your products been?
   
   Gladys: Just great!! The feedback has been very encouraging. That is the more reason I wish to go on and on. I had the First Prize for Pepper Production at the 2011 Ebolowa Agro – Pastoral Show. The excitement I saw over the pepper cube was overwhelming. Everybody was rushing in to ask for the pepper cube from Mutengene. We went to Ebolowa with a huge stock of our pepper cubes and it turned out to be a huge commercial success. It is exciting. I ended with a Presidential Award of Merite Agricole in Cameroon.
   
   AfricaNews: After your recognition by the government of Cameroon, do you have any other expectations?
   
   Gladys: I hope that government will lay a lot of emphasis on what I am doing and step in to ensure that more people get interested in what I am doing. Not everybody have the gifts I have, but a lot more can be motivated to get in. That is my wish. I wish to share with Cameroonians.
   
   Therefore, there is need for sponsorship for other Cameroonians to come on board. That way, we will be able to transform our local crops into finished products and subsequently take our economy and industrial sector one step ahead. The young people have to be focussed, imaginative and begin life in a humble manner. They should be progressive in their approach.
   
   AfricaNews: Tell us more about yourself
   
   Gladys Ngwi Taka was born at the General Hospital in Bamenda in 1962 and grew up in Old Town. I started my primary education at Girls School, Mankon, Bamenda and ended in another primary school in Santa, Bamenda. Done with the primary, I moved to Victoria, now Limbe, where I settled for my secondary education at National Comprehensive College.
   
   At the time I graduated from secondary school, I met my fiancé, now my husband, Andrew Muluh Taka. We got married shortly, I was 17. A year after, we moved to England, where I studied at the Regent Secretariat College, London. I specialised in secretary ship. While in England, I had my first child.
   
   When we returned from England, I picked up a job with LABOGENIE, while writing some public service exams then to try my hands elsewhere if the opportunity came. Eventually, I left LABOGENIE because it came a time when we worked for more than seven months and there were no salaries. CDC was the next stop.
   
   While in CDC, I enrolled at the University of Buea, doing a double major at the Departments of Women & Gender Studies and Sociology & Anthropology. After my graduation, I was redeployed to the tea sector of CDC that was sold out and renamed Cameroon Tea Estate, CTE. At CTE I was appointed Director of Human Resources.
   
   I stayed on for two years and left. Now ‘liberated’, I was able to concentrate and develop the concepts we have been discussing.

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1. Posted on Wednesday 25 April 2012 12:43

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