A historical exploration of women’s production of Fante Kenkey at Yamoransa in Ghana’s central region

Women’s contributions to development through their activities in the informal sector have been extensively examined in a plethora of literature. There is, however, a lacuna with respect to a focus on women’s specific informal sector economic activities and their impact on local communities. Dwelling on a variety of sources of information, this study fills that gap through a historical exploration of women’s production and sale of Fante kenkey and its impact on the people of Yamoransa from the pre-colonial period up to 2016. The study establishes that the production and sale of Fante kenkey underwent significant transformations and the women (Akutiabↄfo) who engaged in it contributed immensely to social and economic development in Yamoransa, the Central Region and Ghana as a whole. The major challenge of the (Akutiabↄfo), which was lack of a safe market place for sellers of Yamoransa Fante Kenkey, however remained unresolved.