KAEME Body Care Limited, a Ghanaian natural skincare and personal care brand, has been named DHL ESG Excellence Exporter of the Year, earning international recognition for its approach to sustainable sourcing, community development, environmental responsibility and global trade.
The award was presented on August 13, 2026, at the DHL MEA Innovation Centre in Dubai during a gala ceremony attended by government representatives, diplomatic trade attachés, DHL GoTrade partners and senior DHL executives.
The recognition places KAEME among African small and medium-sized enterprises demonstrating how responsible business practices can be integrated into export growth and international competitiveness.
The company’s success is rooted partly in two relatively little-known Ghanaian communities—Juaso and Bososo—where artisanal gold mining has historically been an important economic activity but has also contributed to land degradation and pressure on water resources.
Rather than simply sourcing raw materials from the communities, KAEME says it has worked to build productive supply chains that provide alternative economic opportunities and connect local producers to international markets.
Building markets for local producers
Founded 11 years ago by Freda Obeng-Ampofo in Accra, KAEME produces body butters, black soap, body oils, candles and reed diffusers and currently serves customers in more than 15 countries across Africa, North America and Europe.
A major component of the company’s business model is its sourcing relationship with producer communities in Ghana.
When Obeng-Ampofo began working with producers in Juaso and Bososo, black soap production already existed in the communities. However, production was described as inconsistent, lacked standardisation and had limited access to reliable markets.
KAEME therefore moved beyond simply buying finished products by developing formulations and recipes, training producers in Good Manufacturing Practices and introducing quality-control standards.
The company also developed logistics systems to consolidate production and ensure that traditionally produced Ghanaian black soap could meet the consistency and quality requirements of international customers.
The approach has enabled producers to participate in a more structured value chain while giving KAEME a traceable source of raw materials and finished products.
Obeng-Ampofo continues to maintain direct involvement in the company’s supply chain, including visiting farms and inspecting cocoa pods during harvest.
That hands-on approach, the company says, allows it to maintain closer relationships with producers and strengthen traceability beyond documentation.
Solar transition reaches 65%
KAEME’s environmental initiatives have also formed an important part of its ESG strategy.
The company has financed its transition to solar energy at its Accra production facility entirely from its own resources, without grants, investor pressure or external mandates.
The solar transition is currently about 65 per cent complete.
Upon completion, the facility is expected to provide more than energy for KAEME’s own manufacturing operations. The company plans to make the infrastructure available to other African women formulators as shared infrastructure.
The objective is to enable emerging manufacturers to avoid some of the capital costs, experimentation and technical challenges that KAEME encountered in developing its own production systems.
The company has also increased local sourcing, with more than 70 per cent of its raw ingredients sourced within Ghana.
According to KAEME, this has helped reduce transport-related emissions by an estimated 72 per cent compared with imported alternatives.
Its environmental measures also include 100 per cent recyclable packaging and rainwater harvesting integrated into its facility operations.
Governance and global markets
Beyond environmental and social initiatives, KAEME says it has invested in governance systems to support its expansion into international markets.
These include transparent financial reporting, ethical sourcing standards across supplier relationships and data governance systems for managing international e-commerce operations across multiple markets.
The company argues that these systems are increasingly important as Ghanaian businesses seek to expand beyond the domestic market and compete in international supply chains where environmental and governance standards are becoming central to purchasing and investment decisions.
The DHL award therefore represents recognition not only of KAEME’s products but also of the systems supporting their production and export.
One of three African winners
KAEME was one of three African companies recognised at the DHL ceremony.
The other winners were Kilentar, which received the Global Expansion Award, and Ohana Family Wear, which received the Woman Exporter Award.
The ceremony was hosted by Dr Sarah Meinert, Head of GoTrade at DHL.
The Ghana Consulate in Dubai was represented by a trade attaché at the ceremony and subsequently invited Obeng-Ampofo and her team to the embassy to formally mark the achievement.
The recognition has added another international milestone to KAEME’s growing record of awards and industry recognition.
The company was named Skincare Brand of the Year for three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024, received the CSR Project of the Year award in 2024 and was recognised as Manufacturing Company of the Year in 2025.
KAEME has also been featured three times by CNN Business and CNN International and has been included in Euromonitor International’s recognition of established natural beauty brands in Ghana.
‘Doing things the right way’
For Obeng-Ampofo, the Dubai recognition validates an approach that she says was never originally designed as an ESG strategy but emerged from the company’s decision to build its business around Ghanaian resources and communities.
“We did not build KAEME around an ESG strategy. We built it because the ingredients exist in Ghana, because the communities in Juaso and Bososo had potential that needed structure and investment, not just a buyer, and because doing things the right way was never negotiable for us, even when it was the slower and more expensive path,” she said.
She said the award demonstrated that responsible business could become a competitive advantage rather than simply an additional cost.
“What this award tells me is that holding that line is, in fact, a competitive advantage,” she said.
The DHL recognition highlights a broader opportunity for Ghanaian businesses to convert local resources, traditional knowledge and community production into globally competitive products while retaining more value within the domestic economy.
For KAEME, the journey from producer communities in Ghana to consumers across more than 15 international markets demonstrates how structured local supply chains, responsible production and export-oriented manufacturing can combine to create commercial opportunities while addressing social and environmental concerns.
From local ingredients to global shelves
KAEME Body Care Limited describes itself as a Ghanaian natural skincare and personal care brand founded by Obeng-Ampofo and headquartered in Accra.
Its products are handcrafted using ingredients sourced directly from producer communities across Ghana, with its growing international customer base spanning Africa, North America and Europe.
The DHL ESG Excellence Exporter of the Year award adds an international dimension to the company’s domestic recognition and reinforces its positioning as a Ghanaian manufacturer seeking to compete globally while keeping communities, local sourcing and sustainability at the centre of its business model.
