Kate Quartey-Papafio is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Reroy Cables Limited, a subsidiary of Reroy Group and one of the leading manufacturers of electrical cables in Africa which is predominantly catering for the international market with a significant domestic presence. Born to be the difference in her generation, she identified what she wanted to be quite early in life. While some nine-year-old girls, her age, are busy preening and prancing about, she set out on her entrepreneurial journey by selling kerosene– a craft she would eventually transform into an enduring passion to build a fixedly robust company buffering the needs in the energy sector.
Dreams do start off as hazy ideas, which gain clarity and focus with each step taken and for Dr. Quartey-Papafio, the gift in identifying her purpose and propensity to survive in business, especially as an indigenous company like Reroy Cables, is one which requires exploration consistent with an indefinite learning sequence.
Carving up her brainchild about 25 years ago by importing and distributing cables, it gained a renewed and intertwined direction as she incorporated the manufacture of these cables. Gathering momentum and expanding the company’s scope to interact directly with the supply chain by sourcing raw materials locally, her thoughts surpassed just the local market by increasing the business portfolio in terms of how they can export to sub regional markets in Africa and across global platforms.
Initially, she started off with domestic products and later incorporated industrial cables as well as fire resistance cables which are her company’s original creations and designs with future prospect in delving into the production of marine cables. Brimming with versatility, Dr. Quartey-Papafio also plans to additionally include underground and marine cables.
Reroy Cables, being a homegrown business, endears her to believe business folks need to have sustainability strategies and put in place achievable and detailed transitional procedures that will help their businesses grow for years after its successful establishment. Gender specificity isn’t a judgement on her experience and achievement and in a matter-of-fact manner, she barely considers it an excuse for non-performance. Proudly chronicling her feat in a male saturated environment, Dr. Quartey-Papafio has distinguished herself as the only manufacturer of steel wire ropes in the sub region due to her company’s state of the art equipment, a feat which gives her a competitive edge over others in her execution of deliverables.
Her laurels include being awarded by the Ghana Entrepreneurs Foundation and inducted into the entrepreneur hall of fame for her outstanding and innovative performance and her role as the first female cable manufacturer in the ECOWAS sub region. Dr. Kate Quartey-Papafio, in 2017 also emerged winner of the ‘Energy Personality of the Year Award’ (female category). Similarly, she was adjudged ‘CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year’ 2013/2014 and also, was on the Global Africa Investment Summit held in December 2015 in the UK.
Describing herself as a courageous Ghanaian Industrialist, firm, proactive and resourceful leader who sees risks and challenges as opportunities for growth and development, she has gone through the mill in having to jump the hurdles encountered in her business life. Challenges in getting raw material in for productions and payments poignantly punctuated her sentence. According to her, it is a journey which requires one to have a thick and tough skin as going into production is not easy especially being a woman. In spite of the stereotyped notion usually harboured by men who question her acumen when in search for financial support, she resolutely encouraged women to embrace such challenges and input their quota with regard to development of the economy. Contrarily, the stereotype has made her more responsive to innovation and changing trends in the industry she operates and the fact that she finds herself in an area considered the preserve of men has made her much stronger and very persistent.
Not one to dolefully cower under pressure, Dr. Quartey-Papafio has gathered all the stones from these challenges, built a strong character worthy of mentoring and imparting young lives with her dossier of experiences and knowledge in life and business. Having trained about thousands of young women to be vociferous in demands and asserting themselves, she has equally trained students on how they can dutifully harness their talents to benefit society in the long run.
The Aged, widows and single mothers in the society are not left out of the philanthropic gestures of the affable businesswoman as they have a haven in the ‘Boamah Foundation’ which caters to their needs. Her versatility transcends hospitality to an actual vocation through her overtures of help in the fight against COVID-19 with a whopping GHS100,000 coupled with keloid support and also donations to governmental and private hospitals.
Impacting the entrepreneurship ecosystem is a lifelong occupation for the ever industrious and vivacious Dr. Quartey-Papafio, as her plans for post COVID-19 will see her company with fully automated machines and also witness an expansion in her cable manufacturing company to other parts of the region and beyond.
With God being her number one mentor since birth, high profiled family members fighting in her corner, unwavering self-belief and the right mindset, Dr. Quartey-Papafio is on an upward ascendancy to change the ossified status quo in the manufacturing industry with her fluid yet pragmatic sense of judgement and excellent execution.
