MBA MODE Ghana Limited, a Ghanaian cloth dolls and stuffed animal toys producing factory located at Kasoa in the Central Region, is aiming to become global industry leader through export.
Miss Theresa Mami Baduba Ansah, Director of MBA MODE Gh Ltd, and Member of the Textiles, Garments, and Leather sector of the Association of Ghana Industries, said “The future of our dolls is very promising. We see our dolls sold in many countries, in many homes and in the hands of many children, both Africans and non-Africans learning about African history and heritage through our iconic dolls and our story telling books.”
She added that “We see our dolls contributing to the preservation and celebration of African culture and heritage by telling the African story through them.”
She was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the operations of the company and its outlook for the near future.
MBA MODE Gh Ltd, established in 2013, produces unique dolls that are black with hair that depicts Ghanaian-African, and they are handmade with love and precision, adequately stuffed to maintain their shape and beauty even after many times of being washed.
The dolls come in sustainable African print cloths, which are sewn from African print waste fabrics.
Ms Ansah, who is also technical apparel, fabric art and doll pattern designer, cloth doll artist, fashion design instructor and fashion entrepreneur with a solid background in Accounting and fashion designing, said “Our goal for producing black dolls is to make iconic dolls that represent great men and women, who were instrumental in building the country in Ghanaian history leveraging on that to extend to Africa as a whole.”
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She said, “Another unique thing about our dolls is that they are made by young women including a person living with disability, who invest their time in the making of the doll, while they make earnings to be able to fend for themselves and their families.”
She spoke about the future of the company saying “We see many people, especially women employed in our doll factory to be able to become self-reliant. And we see a Ghanaian toy producing factory headquartered in Ghana, positively impacting our community and beyond by providing valuable fashion skills training as we create sustainable products.”
Aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals (Goals 3, 4, 8, 10 and 12) she said “We believe that skills development will change individual life, family and the entire nation as a whole” adding the company envisaged to project Africanism and preserve African culture in fashion as Africa’s preferred fashion kids and toy brand and to provide accessible, practical, business oriented and cost-effective training in fashion design technology.
Ms Ansah spoke about her journey into the industry and said “My late husband discovered my sewing ability, because then, I could cut and sew clothes for our little son out of the blue. He suggested I enroll in a fashion school, which I did in 2012. I started sewing for clients two months after my enrollment and registered my fashion business in 2013.”
She added that “Officially, I started operating in our living room in 2014 after my graduation. A year after, I moved the business from our living room to a rented shop and later had three staff members including two apprentices.”
She said “There, I started preparing myself to train students. In 2017, we started the fashion school with six students in a two-bedroom house with six staff members. We have since trained over 500 students and still counting, having a team of 17 staff members and five board members.”
Ms Ansah touched on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations of her company, saying “COVID- 19 hit us so badly that our school had to be closed. Engaging our business in the production of nose masks, we thought of how we could diversify and what we could do for children at home.”
She said “Through a client of ours, we discovered we could make dolls and that started our dolls and toys production. My motivation for going into fashion designing came from my late husband and the fact that being self-employed was what I needed to be able to regulate my time and take care of the home well.”
“I would say the COVID pandemic was a motivating factor then, to start the doll business and bring smiles to children’s faces. However, today, what motivates me to continue producing dolls is our rich cultural heritage as blacks and telling African stories of our past.”
GNA
