Google Doodle celebrates late renowned industrialist, Mrs. Esther Ocloo

A Google doodle has celebrated late renowned Ghanaian industrialist, Mrs. Esther Afua Ocloo on what would have been her 98th birthday.

A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepage that is intended to celebrate holidays, events, achievements and people.

By 2014, Google had published over 2,000 regional and international Doodles throughout its homepages, often featuring guest artists, musicians and personalities. 

Today Google Doodle is celebrating the achievements of late renowned Ghanaian industrialist, Mrs. Esther Afua Ocloo who through her non profit organisation, helped millions of women to start and run businesses, helping boost prosperity in countless communities.

Mrs. Esther Ocloo after starting a business selling fruit juice and marmalade as a teenager and realising the financial difficulties poor women faced, she helped found and operated a bank specifically designed to help women of low incomes.

In 1975 as a succeeding businesswoman, Mrs. Ocloo was invited to the first UN World Conference on Women.

Later that decade, she founded and became the chairman of the board of directors of Women’s World Banking, which expanded her earlier goal of helping women obtain the small loans needed to launch businesses. 

During a trip to the UK in the 1950s, Mrs. Ocloo began to develop recipes for commercial food canning. 

She was also the first black person to gain a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London.

In the same decade she returned to Africa and set up the first food processing business in Ghana.

Esther was born Esther Afua Nkulenu on April 18, 1919 in the South Dayi District, Ghana – she would have turned 98 today.
Her father was a blacksmith and her mother a farmer and potter.

She studied at boarding school, travelling weekly with food supplies she’d cooked herself, before winning a scholarship to Achimota School, which educated many prominent African leaders.

After leaving school, Esther became the first person to start a food processing business in the Gold Coast (the British colony that became Ghana), selling marmalade and orange juice.

Esther founded her company, Nkulenu Industries, despite having less than a dollar to her name when she made and sold her first jar of marmalade as a teenager.

She traveled to England in 1949 to learn the latest techniques in food processing, becoming the first black person to obtain a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London.

Upon her return to Ghana, Esther set about sharing the skills she had learned with the nation’s women, and imparted priceless business advice to the female population of Ghana.

In 1958, she became the first president of what became the Federation of Ghana Industries, and six years later was the first female Executive Chairman of the National Food and Nutrition Board of Ghana.

Her impact on the society, was such that she was invited to the first UN World Conference on Women in 1975 as an adviser.

Then, in 1979, she helped to found the Board of Directors of Women World Banking, becoming its first chairman.

The organisation helps low-income women, who are often ignored by banks, realise their financial dreams through microlending – giving them small loans to help establish businesses.

In giving women their financial independence, Esther recognised that their health, prosperity and ultimately their lives could be drastically improved.

Esther was married to Stephen Ocloo of blessed memory, and the couple had four children; a daughter, Vincentia Cannaco, and three sons; Vincent Malm, Christian Biassey and Steven Jr.

She died in 2002 after a short illness, at aged 82.

May her soul continue to rest in perfect peace!!!


GBC