About this module
Level 1 taught you to make food that is safe. Level 2 teaches you to prove it, label it, store it, sell it in bulk and make money from it.
Who it is for. People who have finished Food Processing and Cold Vending (Level 1), or who can show the same skills. National Proficiency II covers varied work, mostly routine, under limited supervision.
CTVET status. CTVET lists Culinary Art and Hospitality and Catering Management at the lower levels, but no separate food-processing programme. This module is not those curricula. It follows CTVET's format so it can be put forward later.
Rules and fees change. Every fee, permit and rule in this manual was checked in October 2026 from public pages, and some pages were hard to read. Confirm with the FDA, the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and your Assembly before you pay or print.
Bridge from Level 1: what you already know
- The WHO Five Keys; the danger zone (5–60 °C); handwashing; safe water
- LPG safety, frying oil, and fire extinguishers
- Permits: FDA Food Hygiene Permit, Street Food Vending Permit, medical screening
- An FDA label: name, net volume, ingredients, dates, batch, origin, maker's address, storage
- Safe sobolo, yoghurt, meat pies and bofrot; cold storage below 5 °C
- Choosing a location; Assembly fees; WhatsApp Business; costing a bottle of sobolo
Level 1 did not cover a written food safety system, registering a product with the FDA, Ghana Standards certification, barcodes, shelf-life testing, packaging, products such as juice, shito, groundnut paste and gari, equipment and cold-chain costs, selling to supermarkets and schools, or finding grants. Level 2 covers all of these.
How the module works
Each unit has learning outcomes, performance criteria, the range and the evidence your assessor needs. You are judged Competent or Not Yet Competent. About 70% of the time is practical, following CTVET's Oil Palm programme split of about 30% school and 70% workplace.
Unit 1 · A food safety system: GMP and HACCP
At Level 1 you followed rules. At Level 2 you write them down, check them every day and keep records. An inspector wants to see paper, not promises.
Competency standard
| Learning outcome | Performance criteria — the trainee… |
|---|---|
| 1.1 Apply Good Manufacturing Practice | meets the basic GMP checklist for premises, people, equipment and records |
| 1.2 Draw a flow diagram | lists every step from raw material to sale |
| 1.3 Do a simple hazard analysis | names hazards at each step and the control for each |
| 1.4 Run monitoring records | keeps daily temperature, time and cleaning records |
Range. Sobolo, yoghurt or juice made in a clean kitchen. Evidence. Flow diagram; hazard table; filled-in records; observation.
What GMP means
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) is the basic set of habits that keeps a food business clean and safe. When the FDA inspects a small food processor it looks for things such as a toilet, a handwashing facility, working clothes, head covering and proper packaging. Level 1 gave you most of these habits. Level 2 asks you to write them down and keep records.
- Premises. Clean floors and walls, screened windows and doors, a sloping floor that drains, safe water.
- People. Medical certificate, clean apron and hairnet, handwashing station with soap, nobody working with a stomach upset or skin infection.
- Equipment. Food-grade, easy to clean, washed after each day's work.
- Raw materials. Only fresh, ripe, clean material; throw away mouldy or damaged fruit.
- Records. Dated records of temperatures, cleaning, batches and sales.
HACCP in plain words
HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is a way of finding what can make food unsafe and watching those points. FAO and WHO have written guidance on using HACCP in small and less-developed businesses. The system has seven principles: (1) analyse the hazards; (2) find the critical control points; (3) set critical limits; (4) monitor; (5) decide corrective actions; (6) verify that it works; (7) keep records. FAO also sets out 12 steps to apply them, which include assembling a team, describing the product, drawing a flow diagram, checking it on site, doing the hazard analysis, finding control points, setting limits, monitoring, correcting, verifying and keeping records.
A critical control point (CCP) is a step where control is essential. A critical limit is the number that must be met.
| Step | Hazard | Control | Critical limit | Monitor | If it fails |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receive hibiscus | Mould, dirt | Sort and wash | No mould | Look every batch | Throw away |
| Boil sobolo | Germs | Rolling boil | At least 30 minutes | Clock and thermometer | Boil again |
| Chill and store | Germs grow | Cold | Below 5 °C | Thermometer, twice a day | Move stock; throw away if over 2 hours |
The 30-minute boil and the 5 °C limit come from Level 1, after the Takoradi study found harmful bacteria in every sobolo sample. Hot-filled juice has the same pattern: the limit is the pasteurising time and temperature (Unit 3).
The FDA's progressive licensing
In July 2020 the FDA launched a Progressive Licensing Scheme for cottage and small food processors. Inspectors score a facility against GMP and award a pink (level 1), yellow (level 2) or green (level 3) certificate. The aim was to licence more small processors without dropping the basic GMP rules, and to cut the cost of laboratory tests. The article gave no fees. Ask the FDA Western Regional office how to apply and what each colour allows.
Is HACCP compulsory for you? No page found says that a cottage processor must write a full HACCP plan. The FDA's scheme asks for GMP first. A simple flow diagram and hazard table is still the best habit, and buyers such as hotels may ask for it. Not verified: ask the FDA what a cottage-level licence needs. As a foreign comparison, the UK Food Standards Agency gives small food businesses in England and Wales a simple pack, Safer food, better business, with written steps for cross-contamination, cleaning, chilling and cooking and a daily diary, to help them meet food hygiene law. Your flow diagram and hazard table can follow the same plain style.
Find the control
For each, name the hazard and one control. (1) Fruit with soft brown patches. (2) Juice bottles cooled in an open bucket on the floor. (3) A worker with a cough pours the milk. (4) A fridge that reads 9 °C. (5) A jar lid used twice.
Write your system
- Choose one product. Draw its flow diagram from buying to selling (at least eight steps).
- Fill in a hazard table with at least five steps, with limit, monitor and corrective action.
- Start a daily record sheet: fridge temperature (twice a day), cooking time and temperature, cleaning done, batch number. Keep it for the whole course.
- Self-inspect your kitchen against the GMP checklist; fix two faults.
Inspect a shop
Visit a shop or chop bar (politely). List three things done well and three that an inspector might mark down.
Unit 2 · Registration, certification, labels and barcodes
Registration is how a small kitchen becomes a trusted brand. It costs money and time, and it opens doors that stay shut to unregistered food.
Competency standard
| Learning outcome | Performance criteria — the trainee… |
|---|---|
| 2.1 Plan FDA registration | lists the documents, tests, samples and fees needed |
| 2.2 Explain GSA certification | says who must hold the Ghana Standards mark and how to apply |
| 2.3 Write a Level 2 label | produces a label that meets FDA rules and backs every claim |
| 2.4 Explain barcodes | says what a GS1 barcode is and why shops ask for it |
Range. One product to be sold in a pack or bottle. Evidence. Registration checklist; costed plan; label; oral questions.
Registering a product with the FDA
All food products that are imported, advertised, sold or distributed in Ghana must first be registered with the FDA. For a locally made pre-packaged food the FDA's own checklist (effective June 2020) says you need:
- A purchased application form and a letter to the FDA Chief Executive Officer
- A copy of your business registration certificate
- A certificate of analysis for each product and variant, endorsed by an authorised officer; applications without one are not accepted
- Documents that back up any health, nutrition or "best" claim on the label
- Samples of each product and variant, as in the FDA sample schedule (two sample units and a model label if you only have mock samples)
- A fee, renewed every 3 years
- Everything bound together; the application must be finished within 3 months or you must reapply
Fees on the FDA's 2020 checklist, per product for 3 years: cottage industry GH¢150; small-scale GH¢450; medium-scale GH¢600; large-scale GH¢900. A model label sent only for checking costs GH¢100 per product and variant. A product name search costs GH¢50 for up to five products. A news summary says registration can take one to two months from the day samples reach the laboratory. How the FDA decides whether you are "cottage" or "small" was not verified. Ask.
The FDA's 2023 fee schedule (L.I. 2481), on its website, is newer than the 2020 checklist: locally made food product registration GH¢100 (micro), GH¢200 (small), GH¢300 (medium) and GH¢500 (large), listed "per annum", and label evaluation GH¢200 per product per variant. Plan with the 2023 figures and ask the FDA whether you pay every year. The Progressive Licensing Scheme is for businesses with one to five people directly in production.
Two fee tables. Another FDA fee page gave different, lower figures that were hard to read. Because of the doubt, use the table above only for planning, and ask the FDA Western Regional office for today's figure before you pay.
The premises and the food hygiene permit
Making food for sale needs your premises to be inspected as well as your product registered. All food service businesses must hold a valid FDA Food Hygiene Permit, and the FDA said full enforcement began on 1 February 2026 under the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851). The permit lasts one year and must be displayed. A news summary listed inspection fees by scale (cottage GH¢60, small GH¢120, medium GH¢140, large GH¢600), but which FDA page they came from was not verified. Keep your medical screening current too: STMA refused licences to vendors with conditions such as typhoid.
Ghana Standards Authority certification
The GSA says that, under the Ghana Standards (Certification Mark) rules (L.I. 662 and 664), locally made products made by an industrial process must hold a licence for the Ghana Standards Certification Mark before they are shown for sale or exported. The mark must be visible on the label, and the GSA says it applies to both large firms and SMEs. Manufacturers who have not been certified should contact the GSA Director General. The steps include inspection of the premises and process, laboratory testing, a review and then regular checks.
Not verified: whether a cottage kitchen making shito or juice counts as an "industrial process" for this rule, and what the GSA fee is. Do not put the GSA mark on a label unless you hold the licence. Ask the GSA first.
Labels at Level 2
Keep every Level 1 label item (name, net volume, ingredients, dates, batch, origin, maker's address, storage). Add:
- A shelf-life statement you can prove with a test (Unit 3).
- Only claims you can back up. If you write "no preservatives" or "rich in vitamin C", the FDA asks for papers to substantiate it.
- The FDA registration number once you have it, and the GSA mark only if licensed.
Barcodes
A GS1 barcode (13 digits) identifies a product uniquely. It lets shops track stock and sales, and it helps export. Barcodes are voluntary in Ghana, but some businesses print fake barcodes that scanners cannot read, which hurts the country's name. GS1 Ghana issues and checks barcodes and trains SMEs; its office is in Spintex, Tema. GS1 Ghana uses the "603" country prefix and says it has helped over 2,000 businesses. The membership fee was not found. Email info@gs1gh.org or phone before budgeting. Never copy a barcode from another product.
Plan the paperwork
You make shito in two flavours (hot and mild) and want to sell in a supermarket. Using the FDA checklist above, list every document and the fees you can find. Use the small-scale rate. Which fees could you not find?
Paperwork pack
- Make a checklist for registering your product, with a column for what you have and what is missing.
- Write a Level 2 label for a 250 g jar or 500 ml bottle. Peer-check it against the list above.
- Phone or visit (with the trainer) the FDA Western Regional office or STMA Environmental Health and ask two questions from this unit that the manual could not answer.
One call
Ask GS1 Ghana (email or phone, with your trainer) how a small food maker joins and what it costs. Write down the answer and the date.
Unit 3 · Shelf life, packaging and keeping food safe longer
Food spoils or turns unsafe when germs, water and time meet. Your job is to change one of the three.
Competency standard
| Learning outcome | Performance criteria — the trainee… |
|---|---|
| 3.1 Explain what limits shelf life | names temperature, water, acidity and packaging as controls |
| 3.2 Pasteurise and hot-fill | heats a juice or syrup and fills bottles hot with correct records |
| 3.3 Plan a shelf-life test | sets a test, a record sheet and a date label |
| 3.4 Choose packaging | picks safe, clean, labelled packaging for a product |
Range. Fruit juice or sobolo; a sauce or paste. Evidence. Process record; test plan; observation.
Four ways to keep food longer
- Heat. Pasteurise, then fill hot.
- Cold. Store below 5 °C (Level 1).
- Less water. Drying, or simmering in oil, as in shito.
- Packaging. New caps, clean jars, sealed pouches. No packaging fixes dirty food.
Fruit juice: pasteurise and hot-fill
A small-scale guide from the Intermediate Technology Development Group says fruit products should be pasteurised at 80–95 °C for 1–10 minutes, filled hot, capped and laid on their sides to cool. A pan over gas can overheat at the base, so stir. Check bottles for cracks and chips, wash them well and always use new caps. If the water is in doubt, boil it. It also advises measuring any preservative accurately because it "may be subject to local laws". Which preservatives Ghana allows, and at what level, was not verified. As a foreign guide: in the United States, sodium benzoate may be used up to 0.1% of the food (about 1 g per kilogram), and potassium sorbate may be used at the level good manufacturing practice needs, with no fixed number. These are US rules, not Ghana law. Ask the FDA before you add any preservative, weigh it exactly and name it on the label.
Pineapple juice. The ITDG guide warns that pineapple juice has a heat-resistant enzyme that harms skin on long contact, so wear gloves, and that the juice must be heated longer, for example boiled for 20 minutes. A study of pineapple juice in Benin found a lower temperature could be enough in laboratory conditions. Do not use the lower figure in your kitchen. Use the higher, tested figures until the FDA or a food technologist approves a change.
Water activity: why shito lasts
Shito is simmered in oil with little or no added water, so its water activity falls and it can last weeks. A Ghanaian study found FDA-registered shito had lower water activity and about half the total aerobic count (23%) of unregistered shito (46%), and found E. coli in some samples. The lesson: registered, careful makers are safer. No shito in that study had Salmonella.
How to test shelf life
- Make one batch. Put 10 sealed jars or bottles in the storage you will really use (ambient, or fridge).
- Every week, open one. Look, smell, check for gas, mould or a swollen lid. Record the date and what you see.
- Stop when signs of spoilage appear. Your shelf life is shorter than that, with a safety margin. Never taste a suspect jar.
- A laboratory certificate of analysis (Unit 2) is separate and is still required.
No tasting. Do not taste test food that looks, smells or swells wrongly. Throw it away.
Packaging choices
| Product | Packaging idea | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Juice, sobolo | Glass or food-grade plastic bottle, new cap | Hot-fill; cracked bottles; leaks |
| Shito | Glass jar, new lid | Clean, dry jar; leave no air pocket |
| Groundnut paste | Clean jar or food-grade tub | Dry storage; no water |
| Gari | Clean, dry food-grade bag | Damp makes it mould |
Hot-fill a batch
- Make a juice or sobolo batch (about 5 litres). Wash bottles and caps; new caps only.
- Pasteurise to your limit; record start time, temperature and end time.
- Fill hot, cap, lay on sides to cool, label with batch number and date.
- Start a shelf-life test with 10 bottles; record the first reading.
Weekly check
Open one test bottle each week at home or at the hub and add to the record sheet.
Unit 4 · Making juice, shito, groundnut paste and gari
Each product has one danger that matters most. Know it and you make good food.
Competency standard
| Learning outcome | Performance criteria — the trainee… |
|---|---|
| 4.1 Make fruit juice or squash | extracts, sweetens, pasteurises and hot-fills |
| 4.2 Make shito | simmers a sauce in oil to a safe, stable product |
| 4.3 Make groundnut paste safely | sorts, cleans and handles nuts to cut aflatoxin risk |
| 4.4 Process gari safely | peels, ferments and fries to remove cyanide |
Range. Any three of the four products, with at least one tested for shelf life. Evidence. Products; process records; observation.
Juice or squash
Extract juice with a hand press (citrus) or by pulping flesh through a sieve (mango, soursop, guava). Squash has about 25% fruit mixed with sugar syrup to about 40% sugar; nectar has about 30% fruit with a final sugar of about 12–14%. Filter the syrup through muslin. Then follow Unit 3: pasteurise, hot-fill, label.
Shito
Shito is a Ghanaian black pepper sauce with oil, fish or shrimp powder, onion and spices. Do not add water; simmer in oil until the moisture cooks away. Use dry equipment, a clean dry spoon and a clean dry jar. Record each batch, and cool before closing. A tested recipe with times and temperatures was not found. Keep your own recipe and test shelf life (Unit 3).
Groundnut paste
Aflatoxin is a poison made by mould that grows on groundnuts. Ghana's limit for total aflatoxins was reported as 15 µg/kg, and in a Ghanaian survey 20 of 30 paste samples were above it. The same report said most people buy from cottage processors, who are not covered by the standard in practice, and that many processors used untreated stream water and did not sort or blanch the nuts. Which page carried each figure was not fully checked.
- Buy dry, clean nuts from a trusted seller; refuse mouldy, shrivelled or dark nuts.
- Sort by hand before roasting; throw away bad nuts.
- Use safe water only.
- Store nuts and paste dry, off the floor.
- Sell the paste labelled and registered; the poison cannot be seen or smelled.
Gari
Gari must be processed to remove cyanide from cassava. Fermenting, drying and frying lower the cyanide, and leftover peel raises it. Frying is the most dangerous stage, because of cyanide vapour and smoke. Peel fully, wash, ferment, press and fry in an open, well-aired area. Never fry in a closed room. Use a clean, dry, covered store for the finished gari.
Not covered. This manual gives safety rules for gari, not full recipes or fermentation times. Ask CSIR-FRI or the FDA for approved methods.
Make three products
- Make juice or squash (Unit 3 limits).
- Make a small shito batch and a groundnut paste batch (sorted, safe water), or a gari batch if equipment allows.
- For each: fill in the process record, label with batch and date, and store properly.
- Record yield (jars or kg) and costs for every batch.
Supplier check
Visit a market seller of groundnuts or cassava. Write what you looked for to tell good from bad, and the price per kg.
Unit 5 · Equipment, costing and the cold chain
The right machine pays for itself. The wrong one sits idle. A freezer that is switched off during blackouts costs you your stock.
Competency standard
| Learning outcome | Performance criteria — the trainee… |
|---|---|
| 5.1 Choose equipment | compares options by need, cost, power and cleaning |
| 5.2 Run the cold chain | keeps product below 5 °C from kitchen to customer |
| 5.3 Compare power options | weighs mains, generator and solar for a freezer |
| 5.4 Do a payback calculation | works out how long equipment takes to pay for itself |
Range. A chest freezer; a juicer or pulper; cooking and bottling equipment. Evidence. Equipment comparison; cold-chain log; calculation.
Choosing equipment
Ask: What does it do? Can I clean it? Does it need power I do not have? Can it be repaired nearby? A basic juice set needs a peeler, stainless steel knives and boards, a juice extractor or pulper, a thermometer, scales, a stainless steel pan and a capping tool. The same guide notes that a large aluminium pan can boil syrup and that a pot over gas can overheat at the base. Its prices are in pounds from the 1980s, so ignore them.
Asking prices on Jiji Ghana, 7 October 2026 (mostly Accra and Kumasi; Western Region not checked):
| Item | Advertised price |
|---|---|
| Chest freezer, about 100 L | GH¢2,200–2,799 |
| Chest freezer, about 200 L | GH¢2,799–3,599 |
| Chest freezer, about 300 L | GH¢4,699–5,199 |
| Household slow juicer (for small trial use only) | about GH¢1,299 |
| Used commercial juicer | about GH¢4,500 |
These are asking prices, not offers. Household juicers are not made for daily commercial work.
The cold chain
Keep cold products below 5 °C from the kitchen to the customer: chilled kitchen, fridge or freezer with a thermometer, cool box with ice for delivery, clean cold display at the stall (Level 1). Write the fridge temperature twice a day (Unit 1). If power is off, do not open the door; if it is off for more than 2 hours and contents rise above 5 °C, treat the contents as unsafe.
Solar and pay-as-you-go cold storage
Mains power in Takoradi can fail, so some micro-sellers use solar freezers. Koolboks makes solar chest freezers with batteries; it filled a 500-unit order for FanMilk, a Danone company, for micro-franchise vendors in Ghana, and distributors offer pay-as-you-go plans. No Ghana price for a solar freezer was found; ask a distributor for a written quote and the monthly instalment. Also, a solar cold store called AkoFresh reports that cooling stretches vegetable life from about 5 to 21 days, renting space at about US$0.30 a day per 20 kg crate. That is for farm produce, not for your prepared foods, but renting cold space can be cheaper than buying a freezer.
Money maths: does the freezer pay?
Freezer payback
A 200 L chest freezer costs GH¢3,500. It lets you sell 20 extra cold bottles a day at a profit of GH¢4 each before electricity. Electricity costs GH¢20 a day. (1) Daily profit after electricity? (2) How many selling days to pay for the freezer? (3) About how many months if you sell 26 days a month? (4) If there is no power for 3 days and you lose 40 bottles that cost GH¢7 each to make, how much do you lose?
Equipment comparison
- Compare three freezers from real advertisements: litres, price, power use if shown, warranty, seller location.
- Keep a cold-chain log for one week: fridge temperatures twice a day and one cool-box test with ice.
- Do the freezer payback with your own figures.
- Write a one-page recommendation: what to buy first, what to rent or borrow.
Power cuts
Ask two vendors how they cope with power cuts. Write what each does and what it costs.
Unit 6 · Location, scaling up and selling to bigger buyers
Selling bottle by bottle is slow. A school, a shop or a hotel that buys every week is a business.
Competency standard
| Learning outcome | Performance criteria — the trainee… |
|---|---|
| 6.1 Choose a production and selling location | scores sites using the checklist |
| 6.2 Buy from local farmers | makes a simple supply plan for a main raw material |
| 6.3 Sell to larger buyers | writes a supply offer for a school, shop or hotel |
| 6.4 Plan growth | plans extra income lines and the next investment |
Range. One real or planned business. Evidence. Location report; supply plan; offer letter.
Location settings that give good returns
Level 1 told you to sell near thirsty, hungry crowds. At Level 2 you also need a place to make food.
- Safe water and drainage. Needed for a food processing room.
- Reliable power, or room for a solar freezer.
- Cleanable room with screened doors and windows.
- Near raw materials. Pineapples, pepper, groundnuts, cassava and hibiscus cost less near farms.
- Near buyers. Schools, offices, hotels, lorry stations, markets, a supermarket.
- Allowed by the Assembly. Not on road reserves or cleared streets; trading near Market Circle is limited.
- Access for all. Level ground, a ramp, space for a wheelchair.
STMA also runs a weekend on-street market that you can ask about. Check STMA fees with the Assembly; its 2025 table listed items such as yoghurt and ice-cream dealers at GH¢140 a year, but the table was hard to read.
Supply from local farmers
Good processors know their farmers. Write a simple plan: what you need per week (say, 50 kg of pepper), who supplies it, price agreed in advance, quality rules (no rot, washed, sorted), when you pay. Ginger prices more than doubled in a year to June 2026, so agree prices in writing and keep a second supplier. The Ghana School Feeding Programme guidelines say caterers should buy 80% of food from smallholder farmers. Which WFP page stated the 80% was not checked. Ask the District School Feeding Secretariat.
Selling to schools, shops and hotels
- Schools and offices. Weekly orders of drinks and snacks. Nearly half of Accra street vendors sell beside schools. Ask the head teacher or administrator for permission and which hygiene proof they want.
- Supermarkets. Often want an FDA registration number, a barcode and a clear label. What each shop asks was not verified; ask the buyer. Barcodes help shops track stock.
- Hotels and restaurants. Want regular supply, consistent taste, clean delivery and papers. They may ask for your food hygiene permit and your HACCP-style records (Unit 1).
- Events and churches. Orders for packs of small chops or drinks.
- Online and WhatsApp. Orders by WhatsApp with delivery by rider.
Never promise what you cannot deliver. A hotel that runs out of juice will not call you again. Start with one buyer, deliver on time for a month, then add another.
Business ideas and ingenuity
- Bundle: a small jar of shito with a gari pack for a gift hamper.
- Seasonal: pineapple juice when pineapples are cheap; sobolo for festival weeks.
- Contract packing: pack a farmer's groundnut paste or gari under a registered kitchen's rules, with the right paperwork.
- Cold-space rental: rent spare freezer space and sell ice or cold water.
- Training: teach a short class once you have registered products and a clean record.
- Waste: use fruit peel for animal feed or compost. Ask EPA about rules before dumping waste in a drain or open site; the Environmental Protection Act 2025 (Act 1124) replaced earlier laws and requires registration of industrial chemicals. Rules for small processors' waste water were not verified.
Supply offer
- Score two real sites (one for production, one for selling) on the checklist.
- Write a one-page supply plan for your main raw material: amount, supplier, price, rules.
- Write a one-page offer to one buyer (school, shop or hotel): product, price, size, delivery day, proof of safety.
- Present your offer to the class for questions.
First big buyer
Ask one shop, school or hotel what they would need from you to become a regular supplier. Write down what they say, with their name and the date.
Unit 7 · Market yourself, price for profit and find money
Know your cost, know your price, know your buyers. And when you need money, ask for the right kind.
Competency standard
| Learning outcome | Performance criteria — the trainee… |
|---|---|
| 7.1 Market yourself | builds a brand, WhatsApp catalogue, Google profile and referral routine |
| 7.2 Price for profit | works out cost, margin and a price for shops and for direct sale |
| 7.3 Keep records | records costs, sales and stock; separates business and personal money |
| 7.4 Plan funding | lists grants, loans and savings and their conditions |
Range. Your planned products and buyers. Evidence. Catalogue; costing; record book; funding plan.
Market yourself
- Set up a WhatsApp Business profile and catalogue: up to 500 items with photos and prices. The app also has a business profile and automatic greetings and away messages.
- Set up a free Google Business Profile so nearby people find you; verification can be by phone, email, video call or a postcard that takes about two weeks.
- Put your permit, registration number and shelf-life date on the label and the stand. Customers choose neat vendors.
- Ghanaian small businesses that use Facebook, Instagram and TikTok report better profit.
- Signage: a clear board with your name, products and phone number. Use photos of the kitchen cleanliness, never of a product you cannot supply.
- Referrals: give a small sample to each new buyer and ask for one name.
- Portfolio: keep photos of your products, your labels, your permits and your buyers' thank-you messages.
Price for profit
Price = cost per unit ÷ (1 − margin) for a given margin on the selling price.
Add a share of fixed costs, such as registration and tests, to each batch. Shops add their own mark-up. If a shop keeps 25% of the shelf price, you receive 75%.
Price a jar of shito
A batch of 40 jars (250 g) uses: oil GH¢180, fish and shrimp powder GH¢120, onions and spices GH¢60, gas GH¢30, jars, lids and labels GH¢200, transport GH¢20. You spent GH¢200 on one year's FDA product registration (2023 small-scale fee) and GH¢200 on label evaluation, to be recovered over 12 batches (one a month for a year). (1) Total cost per batch including the registration share? (2) Cost per jar? (3) Price for a 35% margin on selling price? Round up to the nearest GH¢1. (4) Profit per batch if you sell all 40 at that price? (5) A supermarket keeps 25% of its shelf price. What shelf price lets you still receive your answer to (3)?
Keep records and money habits
Record every day: stock bought, batches made, jars sold, cash in and out. Keep business money apart from home money. Review costs every month, since ginger and other inputs can jump in price.
Find money: grants, loans and savings
- The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), funded by the World Bank, has given grants for machinery, working capital and last-mile infrastructure. A 2023 report said 270 MSMEs got more than GH¢35 million, with programmes for youth (age 18–40), women and high-growth SMEs. Whether a new round is open, and who qualifies, was not verified. Ask the GEA office.
- A September 2026 news report said MTN Ghana and Innohub would give grants to MSMEs in three regions, but two versions gave different totals (GH¢2 million and GH¢20 million) and the regions were not checked. Check the official call.
- Savings and susu groups, supplier credit and pre-paid orders are often faster than grants.
Never pay a fee to "guarantee" a grant. If someone asks for money to get you a grant, stop and ask the agency directly.
Accessibility
The Persons with Disability Act 2006 (Act 715) requires accessible public places and bans job discrimination, but an audit found only 14% of the public places checked had any retrofitting. In 2025 STMA gave deep freezers and ice chests to persons with disabilities, so ask your Assembly what help exists. Offer seated work stations, large-print recipe cards, picture records and sign-language or written instructions, and put a ramp or level approach at your stand. The 5% disability share of the Assemblies' fund from 2026 was not found in a source for this manual; ask your Assembly.
Launch your growth plan
- Set up a WhatsApp Business catalogue with three products and a Google Business Profile (or a practice draft).
- Price one product for direct sale and for a shop that keeps 25%.
- Write a one-page growth plan: product, permits, buyer, equipment, cold storage, funding source, first-year costs.
- Present it to a panel of two trainers or visitors for questions.
Ask for the next step
Ask a registered local processor how they got started and what they would do differently. Write three lessons.
Glossary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Competent / Not Yet Competent | The two possible results of a CBT assessment |
| GMP | Good Manufacturing Practice: basic habits that keep food clean and safe |
| HACCP | A way of finding and watching the steps that can make food unsafe |
| CCP | Critical control point: a step where control is essential |
| Critical limit | The number that must be met at a CCP (time, temperature) |
| Certificate of analysis | A laboratory paper showing a product's test results |
| Water activity | How much free water is in food for germs to use |
| Hot-fill | Pouring hot, pasteurised food into containers and capping at once |
| Aflatoxin | A poison from mould on groundnuts and grains |
| GS1 | The group that issues barcodes |
| Cold chain | Keeping food cold from kitchen to customer |
| Margin | The share of the selling price that is profit |
Logbook
Copy these pages into an exercise book. Your logbook is part of your assessment evidence.
- Unit 1: flow diagram; hazard table; daily record sheets; self-inspection
- Unit 2: registration checklist; Level 2 label; questions asked of the FDA or STMA; GS1 call note
- Unit 3: hot-fill record; shelf-life test sheet; weekly checks
- Unit 4: process records and yields for three products; supplier check
- Unit 5: equipment comparison; cold-chain log; payback calculation; power-cut notes
- Unit 6: site scores; supply plan; offer letter; buyer's reply
- Unit 7: catalogue; costing; record book; growth plan; lessons from a processor
- Every homework, dated
Self-check quiz
- What does GMP stand for, and name two things an FDA inspector looks for?
- What is a critical control point, and what is a critical limit?
- What does a certificate of analysis do?
- How often must a locally made food product registration be renewed?
- Can you put the Ghana Standards mark on your label without a licence?
- At what temperatures and times should fruit products be pasteurised before hot-filling (ITDG guide)?
- Why does shito keep longer than juice?
- What poison is the main risk in groundnut paste, and name two controls?
- Which stage of gari making is the most dangerous, and why?
- A freezer costs GH¢3,000 and adds GH¢50 a day after electricity. How many selling days to pay for it?
- If a shop keeps 25% of the shelf price, what share do you receive?
- Why should you never copy a barcode from another product?
Further reading and sources
Best next reads: FAO's "HACCP Toolbox" and Food and Nutrition Paper 86 on HACCP in small businesses; the FDA Ghana's checklist for registering locally made foods; the GSA's notice on mandatory certification; GS1 Ghana; the ITDG fruit juice technical brief.
What this module does not cover: full recipes with approved fermentation times for gari; approved Ghana preservative limits (a US example is given as a guide only); the GSA and GS1 fees; waste-water rules for small processors; export registration; large factory processing; fish smoking; and current Takoradi prices for farm inputs (not found).
Every source used in this manual is listed, with links, in the Teacher Copy.