Tech giant celebrates Ghanaian entrepreneur, Esther Afua Ocloo

Google on Tuesday (April 18, 2017) published a doodle in honour of the founder of Nkulenu Industries Esther Afua Ocloo.

She was a Ghanaian entrepreneur and a pioneer in microlending in Ghana.

She was the first person to start a formal food-processing business in West Africa's Gold Coast.

She started her business with only a few Ghanaian shillings given to her by an aunt. Out of that money she bought sugar, oranges and 12 jars to make marmalade jam.

Despite the ridicule of her former classmates, she made some profit from the sales.

Soon she won a contract to supply her high school with marmalade jam and orange juice and later managed to secure a deal to provide the military with her goods.

On the basis of that contract, she took out a bank loan.

In 1942, she established a business under her maiden name, "Nkulenu".

She later travelled to England to learn the latest techniques in food processing.

When she returned to Ghana Ocloo transferred her knowledge on food processing and running a business to other women.

Ocloo in 1979 founded and became chairwoman of Women's World Banking after she realised that securing loans for women was difficult.

The nonprofit organisation provides financial and technical assistance to low-income women around the world so they can reach their entrepreneurial goals.

Ocloo was also the first black person to earn a cooking diploma from the Goodhousekeeping Institute in London.

She died in 2002 at the age of 82 after a bout with pneumonia. She would have been 98 years today.

In her honour, Google is changing its homepage logo in the United States; Ghana; Peru; Argentina, Iceland; Portugal; Sweden; Australia; Greece; New Zealand; Ireland and the UK to a "doodle"