Bamboo bicycle, which debuted over a century ago then quickly disappeared, is re-emerging as a potential catalyst for economic growth and job creation in Ghana. Thanks to the Yonso Project, pioneered by Booomers International and its Chief Executive Officer, Kwabena Danso.
Along with other groups such as the Ghana Bamboo Bike Initiative and Bamboosero, founded by renowned bike-frame designer Craig Calfee (who taught Danso how to fabricate bamboo frames), Booomers is helping Ghana become a haven for bamboo-bike building.
Danso was born and raised in Yonso from which he derived his Yonso Project, a grassroots community-development organisation in Ghana.
He graduated in 2006 from the University of Ghana in Legon with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology, and later obtained a Master’s in business administration from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Re-awakening
According to Wikipaedia, the first bamboo bike was introduced in London in 1894 but never got off mass production. But Danso built his first bamboo bike in 2009, instructed by the American Craig Talfee.
“Bamboo bikes are starting to get a lot of attention on the international scene,” said Danso, who featured recently on African Start-Up, a CNN programme.
The young entrepreneur is making good business out of bamboo bikes, and creating jobs in a small village called Apaah, near Asante Mampong in the Ashanti region. With his enterprising young fellows, he has committed himself to making bicycles from bamboo using simple tools like chisels, screwdrivers and spanners.
The wheels, brakes, and seats are regular metal and rubber parts bought at the market. But the bicycle frame is made of bamboo. “Bamboo is five times stronger than steel,” Danso said, adding that it is lighter than steel, making it a good material for bike frames.
Bamboo frames are very absorbent of vibrations caused by bumps in the trail, making them well suited for performance riding such as mountain biking.
Customers do not have to worry about their bikes rotting away, he said, because “bamboo is anti-bacterial, making it very difficult for users to have bacterial infections.”
Helping youths to make economic gains
Danso has created a robust bamboo-bike cottage industry in Apaah. The company employs about 11 workers at its workshop in Central Ghana.
Danso believes that supplying just Ghanaians, much less global markets, with affordable bikes would help mitigate transportation woes, particularly in rural areas, where simple things like a trip to school or bringing products to market are a challenge.
The manufacturing cost for Yonso Project ranges from $130 to $180. In Ghana, the bikes sell for Ghc400. When exported to the United States, Holland or Germany, the frame alone costs $250.
The main employment for the villagers of Apaah has been small-scale farming. Lacking job opportunities, young people leave the village for the cities.
“We have a lot of unemployed youth roaming our cities willing to do anything to survive. We were looking for how to engage the youths in meaningful ventures, train them with skills, and we came across the concept. I got in touch with the person who created it,” Danso recounted to African Start-Up.
“We managed to get him to come down and train the workers. Since then we have been doing this, training the youths in the rural areas.
“We are training young people to give them employment and also to reduce the rural urban migration, which has its own problems in the city as well. It is part of our vision to create opportunities for the rural poor to break the cycle of poverty.”
Production cost
Boomers make different kinds of bicycles, including mountain bikes, road bikes, and city bikes, with the ladies’ version of it all. They also make bicycle baskets.
Part of the components are made of local Kante fibre and each bike is purely handmade and unique.
Including time spent harvesting, it takes about 40 worker-hours to fashion a bamboo frame. Current production capacity? About 600 bikes a year, Danso disclosed.
“Our goal is 1,000 bikes a year, but we are nowhere near that. Last year we produced only 250 bikes because we can’t buy materials in bulk. All our profits get plowed right back into the business.”
Booomers currently sells bike frames for $220 (excluding shipping costs) to distributors in Germany, The Netherlands, Taiwan, and Australia. The company also sells frames online for between $300 and $350.
The net profit, according to Danso, is $85 per frame, a significant amount of money in Ghana. He said the Yonso Project receives 20 per cent of all profits, which fund educational scholarships, libraries and micro-finance business loans for women in rural areas.
“We want to create an employment chain from the plantations to building bikes for distribution. Our biggest problem is funding.
“We are looking for investors so we can buy more tools and procure supplies in bulk, which would allow us reduce the cost of the bikes, as well as ramp up production. Our ultimate goal is to raise $100,000.”
Production challenges
But Danso has his challenges to overcome. Funding is top of the task.
“The capital may come but the cost is very high that if you don’t take time it may run you out of business. So, it is difficult getting capital and funding is a huge issue.”
Absence of stable electricity is also a challenge.
“Sometimes we will not have electricity. We have to rely on generators which makes the cost of production very high.
Fidelity of bikes
Danso said the products are quite strong and reliable, citing the Ladies Mountain Bike, as a prototype which anybody can comfortably ride to anywhere.
“In the next five years, our aim is to conquer the world market. We want to explore everything with bamboo. We want to make this company a place you come and get everything with bamboo, ranging from transport (bicycle), furniture, household items, even houses.
“We can build solid houses with bamboo. That is our focus.”
