Bamboo bikes a boost for Ghana

(23 Apr 2016) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4032500

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Bamboo is being used by an innovative Ghanaian bicycle maker to produce unique natural bike frames.
The booomers project is also promoting a social scheme training local youths in the nearby township.

STORY-LINE:
Not alloy, steel, carbon fibre or titanium - these bike frames are made from bamboo by Ghanian manufacturer, Booomers International located in Yonso in the Asante Mampong district of the Ashanti Region in Kumasi.
Here on the bamboo plantation the main raw material required by booomers is being harvested.
The fast-growing wood has been used for centuries, prized for its strength and flexibility.
Booomers has the ambition of making bamboo a major global resource and to become the world's leader in the bamboo manufacturing industry.
In 2009, Booomers partnered with Craig Calfee's bamboo bikes company Bamboosero to train rural youth in bamboo bike manufacturing.
The bikes were originally branded as Calfee but an upsurge in demand meant the brand could start putting its own stamp on the frame, resulting in the creation of Booomers International in 2014.
Kwabena Danso, CEO of Booomers International says: "In the late 1990's a man called Criag Calfee came up again with the idea of building bicycles from bamboo, and so he kind of re-invented the whole idea and then we got on board, so we had a partnership with Craig who came to Ghana to train us and then give us all the technical abilities and skills that we need."
Currently Booomers has 20 workers here in its bamboo bicycle factory.
Inside the workshop the workers are all using their own hands - there are no robots on this production line.
The bamboo is shaped, cut, drilled and then sanded.
"Basically building a bamboo bicycle can take you about 40 hours to build a single frame, that's if you are working on one, " says Danso.
After the frame is assembled it is sprayed with a fine lacquer for a beautiful gloss finish that shows off the natural material at its best.
"Currently we export to six countries, that is Germany, Holland, Australia, Poland, Canada, and Taiwan, and we are entering the UK market very soon as well as the Finnish Market and the US market," Danso explains.
All these bikes have been tested in Germany to tight European safety standards, and they've also passed the relative international testing regulations according to Danso.
Danso says: "We make the city bike, the mountain bike, and the road bikes, and now we've also come up with the kid's bikes, so we have two different types of the kid's bikes, we have the tricycle, and then we also have the balanced bikes which is like the push bikes, and we've also just developed the 20 wheel bikes for children between 8 and 14, so we're coming up with different products."
Booomers has been an affiliate of the Yonso Project since 2008, and has been supporting human development through financing, education, employment and library programmes.
Yonso is an non-governmental organisation that works to improve rural lives by organising development-oriented programmes in 15 communities in Kumasi. Since its inception in 2007 it has supported 200 children with educational opportunities, trained 15 youths in bamboo technologies and 400 women with business training and financing.
Amo Charles is a foreman at Booomers International. He left school without financial means to continue his education, Booomers was his first job.
With the money he has saved from working here he is planning to get back to school and continue his education.


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