Cedi Beads: How a Krobo Family Workshop Sells to Foreign Buyers and Visitors

Cedi Beads Industry is a family bead-making business near Odumase Krobo in Ghana's Eastern Region. It is a good example of an SME that sells the same craft in several ways: to local customers, to export buyers and to visitors who want to learn how the beads are made. The facts below come from public directory listings and news reports; the practical steps are my own.

The business

A 2015 Graphic Online feature describes Cedi Beads as a cottage industry that makes beads from recycled and discarded glass. Bottles and other glass are crushed into powder, sieved, packed into clay moulds and fired in clay kilns. The Ghana Export Promotion Authority's buyer portal lists it as a family business that registered for export in 1996, names the United States and Germany as export destinations and lists a Ghana Standards Authority certification.

Its chief executive, Nomoda Ebenezer Djaba, is described by the Ghana News Agency as President of the Manya Krobo Bead Association, a founding member of the Ghana Bead Society and a member of the International Society of Glass Bead Makers. In September 2023 the agency reported that seventeen German nationals had completed a bead-making training programme at the workshop.

Four things this business does well

• A low-cost raw material: discarded glass becomes the main input, and the value comes from skill, not expensive stock.
• Being findable by serious buyers: the business appears in the export authority's buyer portal and a national trade directory, with products, contacts and certification in one place.
• Selling the process, not only the product: visitors have come to the workshop to train in bead making, which turns the workshop itself into a second offer.
• A wide price range: the trade directory lists sales units from GH¢1 to GH¢3,500, so a single bead and a high-value piece can both be sold.

What other SMEs can learn

Most small businesses only sell the finished product, and only to the people who walk past. Cedi Beads shows three other routes: being listed where professional buyers search, offering the knowledge behind the product as a paid experience, and building credibility through associations and certification. None of these needs a large budget. Each needs accurate, consistent information that a stranger can trust.

A practical checklist

• Search for your business the way a buyer would: on Google Maps, in your sector's directory and, if you export, on the export authority's buyer portal. Fix or add every listing you find.
• Use the same business name, phone number, email address and product description on every listing. Directories often show different names or contact details for the same business, and that makes buyers hesitate.
• Build a simple product ladder: one low-cost item a visitor can buy today, a mid-range item and a premium or custom item.
• If people ask to watch you work, design a bookable experience: what they learn, how long it takes, how many people, the price and a deposit to secure the date.
• List your certifications and memberships where buyers will see them, not only on the wall of the workshop.

Where technology fits

For a business like this, the useful tools are modest: a catalogue page with price bands, a wholesale enquiry form that asks for quantities and destination, and a booking page for workshop visits that takes a deposit by Mobile Money or card. These are suggestions for similar businesses, not a description of how Cedi Beads operates.