Founder and creative director, Daniel Diyepriye has a goal in mind – to build a brand that will stand out amongst the rest. And while his start in the designer clothing business wasn’t conventional, he knows exactly where his journey is going to take him next.



The African luxury fashion segment is expected to reach $1 billion in 2023, according to market research company Statista. Jeremy Nel, Managing Director of South African-based luxury marketing firm, Luxury Brands, reportedly estimates that there are over 160,000 millionaires in Africa with a combined spending power of about $700 billion. These millionaires want the very best and are willing to spend top dollar when it comes to fashion.



“Louis Vuitton just got a market cap of $500 billion and Shell’s market cap is nowhere near that. Imagine a world where African luxury becomes a lot more lucrative than oil? That would completely transform the African continent and that is why I want to be a big player in this space,” says Daniel Diyepriye, founder and creative director of what he hopes to be Africa’s first luxury fashion house, Daniel Diyepriye.



Diyepriye is not wrong. With the over-reliance on oil and gas by most African countries, especially Nigeria, its largest economy, he may actually be on to something.



The eponymous brand, which launched just before Covid-19 wreaked havoc all over the world, pays homage to the legacy of his late father who epitomized elegance and class. He passed away during the pandemic following complications from a stroke he suffered when Diyepriye was just 14 years old.



Back then, the dream was not fashion but simply, finding a way to support his mother, who was now the primary caretaker of her paralyzed husband and their three children.



“I dropped out of university in my first year. I had to make money for the family and I felt that I had to take the responsibility to provide. I thought it was going to be five or six years before I made money from what they were teaching me in university and I could not wait that long,” recalls Diyepriye.



That is when he became a serial entrepreneur. At first, he took over a modelling agency called Lethal Model Management when he was 21 years old. He then moved on to buying and selling sneakers before transitioning into a car rental business, which he still manages today. The business focuses on renting smart cars for under a pound an hour.



“The name of the company is called SmartMove Car [Hire]. We took some investment, and we run a membership model. Sainsbury’s backed us and allowed us to put our cars in their parking lots so customers can take the car from one Sainsbury’s [store] to the other. But I needed to make a business that could scale because the problem with car rental companies is that when all your cars are rented out, you stop making money,” says Diyepriye.



After the death of his father in 2019, Diyepriye and his brother – who, sadly, also passed away last year due to a heart condition – decided that a luxury fashion business would be the best way to honor him.



“I got my flair from my dad. He used to always wear nice suits. The heritage is to honor my father and it means everything we do has to honor who he was, from the quality of our products and everything we say as a brand,” says Diyepriye.



His eureka moment for his signature brand, coincidentally, also came from his father.



“Me and my dad used to play with jigsaw [puzzles] and he always used to tell me that the jigsaw relates to patience, attention to detail and trying to see the bigger picture. I had an epiphany one day that it would be really cool to put a jigsaw on a bag. And that is what has become our signature look.”



Diyepriye taught himself design and learned how to use all the software applications he needed to make his creations come to life, in order to bootstrap the company and grow it organically.



With the help of influencers to get the word out, the brand was launched with £10,000 ($12,000) he made from his car rental business. Soon after launching, Diyepriye made the decision to focus on the United States (US) market due to the volume of orders they received from there.



“Till date, we have done about $500,000 in revenue and a lot of that money has gone back into the brand. The first tackle for us was validating luxury to say that this bag is luxury regardless of who it is made by. We use materials that fast fashion brands won’t and can’t use,” he says.



As far as Diyepriye is concerned, most of the founders spearheading European luxury fashion houses are men but when it comes to Africa, there is no one male fashion mogul dominating the luxury fashion scene. His goal is to take advantage of this first-mover position and evolve his brand into the Daniel Diyepriye Group, where similar to the LVMH family, he will also be able to launch and acquire other ancillary brands to become a billion-dollar fashion house.



Like many sectors in Africa, technology is providing a platform for the luxury fashion industry to leapfrog archaic infrastructure and scale rapidly. As a result, online stores and social media have provided a platform for the Diyepriye brand to carve out its presence in the industry in the space of only three years. With that in mind, who knows what the future might hold?

Daniel Diyepriye; image supplied

The Mission To Become Africa’s Luxury Fashion House

The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented change to many lives around the world but for a group of daredevils in Ghana, it sparked a passion to explore the world by road.



The group of friends with wide-ranging interests and careers ranging from banking, education, technology and real estate, and also travel enthusiasts, saw an opportunity to use the lockdown to ignite their expedition.



“We started traveling in Ghana because of Covid. We couldn’t get out of Ghana and one funeral to Tamale, in Northern Ghana, inspired the passion for traveling. We began to travel sometimes for funerals, other times for weddings and for work,” says Richard Osei-Anim, an education technology entrepreneur who is part of the group.



Osei-Anim works to deploy smart labs and technology for schools in rural areas. Some of the hard-to-reach areas he works in – such as in Northern Ghana – requires travel by road, and that is what birthed his love for travel. On one of these trips with the group, initially consisting of five team members, one of them suggested going on a 10,000km journey to the United Kingdom (UK).


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“We have this saying we use that ‘what’s the worst that could happen’. So, when the idea was suggested, we were all up for it. Later on, some other members joined which brought our group to about 10 people in all,” recalls Osei-Anim.



This was in 2019 before the Covid pandemic.



“Kwabena Peprah, who is the OCD one amongst us, is our lead planner. He pulled the Excel spreadsheets and put in all the components from the type of car we would use, the spark plugs, windows, the tyres we will need, the cans for petrol and everything in between. We had a whole spreadsheet of data that had been acquired over the years. We postponed it to 2023 but it [meant] about six to nine months of planning and speaking to different people,” says Osei-Anim.



In 2022, the group had also attempted to climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro.



“We didn’t make it all the way to the top. I got to 4,000 meters and Kwabena and the other guys got to 5,000 meters. So, we couldn’t make it, but it was a useful experience and we ended up in Zanzibar for about three days just to chill.”



With friendships in the group going back more than 30 years, there is true camaraderie here. After almost a year of planning, the group set off this year for their planned journey to the UK, from their starting point in Oyarifa, Ghana with a convoy of five cars.



“It took us 14 days to get from Accra to London. We started off from Oyarifa in Aburi, then crossed over to Ivory Coast, then Bamako, then Kayes, then Senegal, then Mauritania to Morocco and some of us left in Morocco to go to Johannesburg to work. The rest of the group crossed over by ferry to Spain, then went to France, then Calais to Dover and ended up in Kent,” says Osei-Anim.



Planning for the trip had to be airtight to ensure they covered the 14-day journey in good time.



“We aimed for departure at 4AM and always considered all scenarios that could potentially delay us unnecessarily. For example, we usually settle all bills the night before so when we wake up, we check out without any drama – like someone’s card not working or no forex to change into local currencies,” says Osei-Anim.



The trip led to the creation of Wanderlust Ghana, a travel blog to chronicle the adventures across some 10 countries. One of the travelers, Kwabena Ayirebi, also Director, Banking Operations at African Export-Import Bank, used the attention from the epic journey to London to raise funds to help connect communities across Ghana and Kenya to digital learning with a platform called EduSpots.



“I first went to London from Accra through a British Chevening Scholarship and that gave me the chance to have a global career. I saw the journey to London as an opportunity to celebrate my birthday, raise funds for a good cause and experience the amazing continent of Africa,” says Ayirebi.



The group stayed at hotels in each destination and the entire trip cost an average of $10,000 per person. The main challenges were mechanical issues ranging from changing car tyres to spark plugs and everything in between.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/A-road-trip-that-led-to-the-creation-of-a-travel-blog-image-supplied.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-60173" style="aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333;width:646px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/A-road-trip-that-led-to-the-creation-of-a-travel-blog-image-supplied.jpeg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/A-road-trip-that-led-to-the-creation-of-a-travel-blog-image-supplied-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/A-road-trip-that-led-to-the-creation-of-a-travel-blog-image-supplied-768x576.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A road-trip that led to the creation of a travel blog, image supplied</figcaption></figure></div>


“I would advise that if you want to take on this journey, make sure you are using very reliable cars. Our cars were quite old with some of them having about 500,000km already and even though we regularly service them, they gave us some issues,” says Osei-Anim.



Another advice is to be mindful of the local rules in various countries. For example, Mauritania has a policy against using tinted windows on cars which the group was not aware of.



“This was the worst experience on the trip as the policemen extorted us and kept us for about eight hours in Mauritania. They threatened to impound us for 48 hours and after illegally taking our money we were finally allowed to pass through,” says Osei-Anim.



After two weeks, the group arrived in Kent to a rousing welcome from the Ghana High Commission in London and along the way, had garnered enough media attention for their epic journey.



With the success of this trip, the group already have their eyes set on their next set of adventures which includes a road trip from Accra to Cape Town next year, then an eight-day expedition in Australia from Perth to Brisbane, then a Dubai via Egypt to Accra expedition and finally hitting all the football stadiums across North America to Alaska in the World Cup year of 2026.

A road-trip that led to the creation of a travel blog; image supplied

From Accra To London By Road: What The Trip Taught This Group Of Friends and Professionals From Africa

Eco-luxury brand RAW Beauty draws its inspiration from the transitional nature of the African Sahel. Founder Ruqayya Tofa-Basheer says her own personal skin challenges led her to this line of work.   



Clean beauty is on the rise. According to researchandmarkets.com, the worldwide clean beauty industry is expected to reach $14.36 billion by 2028. Defined as beauty products that are non-toxic and free of harmful ingredients, clean beauty has gained popularity, especially with Gen Z and millennials. A January 2023 article by The New York Times stated that ‘clean beauty’ had “5.6 million hashtag views on Instagram and 1.2 billion on TikTok”.



For beauty entrepreneur Ruqayya Tofa-Basheer, clean beauty offered a lifesaving solution for her and her daughter’s skin problems, and that led to the creation of one of her luxury botanical, clean beauty brands. RAW Beauty Africa focuses on sourcing and using African ingredients as its base for products.



“We use plants like moringa, baobab, hibiscus, and we use water melon seed oil, pumpkin seed oil and extracts from different plants in Africa that have high anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. We started with body products but now, we deal with face products for acne, and hyperpigmentation also came into play where a lot of people had scars from eczema that they couldn’t get rid of easily,” says Tofa-Basheer.



Her original career dream was architecture. After studying at the University of East London’s School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering, Tofa-Basheer worked with Barron and Smith Architects in Islington, London, from 2005 to 2007, before returning to Nigeria.



Over the years, she had been plagued with a skin condition which proved too difficult to handle.



“Going into beauty was really about my own personal journey with my skin. Having suffered from eczema as a baby, I had a very bad skin condition. I remember in boarding school, I was really not confident at all. During summertime, we were all going for a swim and I wanted to get out of that because I used to have a lot of boils on my body, especially during the rainy season,” Tofa-Basheer recalls.



“I remember my parents taking me to different dermatologists and I never really got a product that worked for me. When I was 19, I came across an aesthetician and she prescribed something that was way too harsh because I had sensitive skin as well, and it ended up really drying up my skin. That is really when I started trying to educate myself about clean ingredients and clean beauty.”



During her first pregnancy, Tofa-Basheer decided to take a beauty and skincare course in hopes of creating her own solution for her skin. However, it was after her pregnancy that her eureka moment happened.



“When I gave birth to my daughter, I found out she had the same skin condition as me. And I sought out companies in the US to help… I was like with all the courses I have done, I need to just order products and get to work. And that is when I created my skin butter and literally, within a week, her skin cleared,” she adds.



And Tofa-Basheer has never looked back. She started researching about the healing properties of local plants as well as different oils and began mixing clean concoctions in her kitchen before expanding to a factory in Kano and, most recently, another location in Abuja.



The brand has experienced organic growth for the past two years with its unique luxury packaging as well as brand proposition which seeks to also educate its customers about the negative impact of skin bleaching, amongst others.



For African beauty entrepreneurs that would like to tap into this billion-dollar clean beauty industry, Tofa-Basheer believes the focus should be on looking inwards first.



“Try to spread out and delve more into our natural plant resources and don’t get pigeonholed into just using shea oil and coconut oil but rather spread out and use research to process and manufacture ingredients, rather than just making products,” she says.



“Look locally for your solutions and try to solve a problem that is personal to you and your community.”

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The Nigerian Beauty Entrepreneur With A Clean Business Idea

Deborah Okenla, founder of Your Startup, Your Story, has made it her mission to build and guide a diverse range of entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom. That has transformed to over 17,000 members in six years and she has helped raise over £5 million.



Your Startup, Your Story (YSYS) founder and CEO, Deborah Okenla and her team provide access and opportunities for founders and investors. But, in truth, Okenla’s transition to becoming an advocate for black founders in tech was triggered by four life-changing experiences.



Like many African families, Okenla’s parents wanted her to study law and that is exactly what she did. After graduating, she landed a job in Manchester with Ernst &amp; Young.



“They had this thing called Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and the guy that won it that year had a fitness space – I was a member and said ‘I can’t believe this man built this amazing business’. I think that is when I began to understand that there are people behind these businesses and the things we use every day,” says Okenla. At the time, she was also beginning to feel like she might be outgrowing her organization. That was when she had her first triggering experience.



“We were working on process that was long and tedious and I wanted to improve it. I was credited for it but was told I should not waste my time doing things that made the work better. I did it on non-billable hours and on the weekends. That’s when I got this massive shock. I realized if you are an intrapreneur or an entrepreneur, make sure you have an environment that nourishes it and supports it rather than stifling it,” says Okenla.



The next experience was when her hiring manager, who had worked for the company for 25 years, was laid off, and Okenla’s third experience was when she lost a close friend to suicide.



With the combination of these experiences, Okenla felt as though she was just sitting in the office mourning and absentmindedly watching her time go.



That is until she stumbled on a platform called Eventbrite. She registered for a hackathon event and in three days was able to learn how to build a business from ideation to execution. With no



experience in tech before the event, Okenla immediately fell in love with the ecosystem.



“I just loved the environment those event organizers were able to create and the engagement from people all over the world was incredible. I felt empowered. Afterwards, I went to the event organizers and said ‘I would love to be a volunteer and help’ and they literally laughed at me. I said ‘If you are not going to let me do this, then I would create my own ecosystem’, ” recalls Okenla.



She quit her job and joined an accelerator program where she specialized in designing programs that would recruit startups and introduce them to investors. The only problem was there was an increasingly disproportionate number of black founders receiving investment compared to their white counterparts. Okenla made the decision to harness her own skills and create her own community.



That was when YSYS was conceived. Her initial group consisted of people she connected with on Twitter and soon, through word- of-mouth, the business grew to host restaurant meetings and a large community on Slack.



“We have had individuals join our community and go ahead to raise a Series A round and we have also had individuals who have not worked for a long time land their first role and those are the stories that have kept us going.”



In the past six years, she says YSYS has raised over £5 million ($6.2 million) and supported over 3,000 diverse founders in the UK. Some of their partners include the Mayor of London, Financial Times, LinkedIn, Google, Spotify and many others. But there are still hurdles and barriers to overcome.



In addition to designing education initiatives and programs, Okenla also knocks on doors that would encourage the UK ecosystem to pay attention to people from diverse backgrounds.



“I wrote an open letter [to the government] and that led to a meeting with British Business Bank and they said they will track the diversity data to see who is applying for the fund and if it’s not as diverse as possible, ‘We will see more of what we can do’.”



Okenla’s mission is to help over 100,000 people excel in tech by the end of this year and the organization is well on its way to achieving it. When she looks back, it still amazes her that a simple WhatsApp group – starting with 30 people – is now an organization with over 17,000 members in six years, and one that has completely changed the course of her own life.

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Diverse Pursuits: Guiding Entrepreneurs In The UK

Growing up poor in Ghana, Kwaku Boateng Brommon had to sell water to make ends meet. The handmade bespoke suits he now designs for the country’s affluent and powerful tell a tale of hardship and tenacity.



Not many can go from selling sachets of water in a remote village in Ghana at the age of nine to having a private audience with the president of their country in the same lifetime. But that is exactly what happened to Kwaku Boateng Brommon.



He vividly remembers the day he walked into what is essentially Ghana’s Oval Office at the presidential residence in Accra, with a handful of bespoke suits made specifically for President Nana Akufo-Addo.



The moment, forever etched in his memory, was a turning point for the young entrepreneur whose trajectory to the top of the Ghanaian fashion industry has been all but conventional.



“Sitting in his office I had a flashback to when I was a kid standing in the market selling my pure water and I was like ‘How did I get here?’ A village boy sitting in the office of the president was impossible and the story played like a movie in my mind,” recalls Brommon.



And like all great dreams, Brommon faced impossible odds. The first roadblock he had to overcome was poverty.



“I grew up with my grandparents and as far as I can remember, I never met my mum until I was in my teens because she had left for London. My dad was a teacher in Nigeria and he came back to Ghana when I was nine. Growing up was tough because I was poor and I had to fend for anything I needed. After school, I would go home, go to the fridge, pack my water and travel to the markets to sell.



“I would do two trips before I [returned] home in the evening and the cash I got selling water is what I would use as pocket money at school. I did that for six years and I also went to the farm with my dad to plant crops and we would harvest the food and take it to the local market to sell. It was tough and I felt like living in Ghana was torture,” says Brommon.



The first chance he got to beat poverty came when he moved to London, United Kingdom (UK), at the age of 14 to live with his mother; and the whole world opened up to Brommon.



Wanting to put to good use the hard work and tenacity he had learned in Ghana, he decided to drop out of college and pursue his passion – fashion.



“From an early age, I always liked to look good and keep my clothes clean. I remember asking myself ‘What is the closest area of work [that would] pull me into this passion of mine?’ I thought I should find a job in a clothing store, which I did.”



By 18, he was working for a retail shop in London, staying on in the industry for about 12 years. 



Every time he would get a break from work, he would roam the West End in London, a popular cultural hub with retail stores, restaurants and a theater district, for hours, window-shopping and studying the impeccable materials used for crafting high-end wear. After stints with luxury brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Hackett London, Paul Smith and Alexander McQueen, Brommon realized that he had reached a glass ceiling in the UK and needed a change.



“I had become a father and had two kids to take care of so just looking at them and looking at where I was at the time, I knew there was more to me than what I was doing; I had to find my purpose. I didn’t want a hand-to-mouth lifestyle anymore and seeing my kids running around in the tiny



apartment we lived in at the time – I was married – and I just thought this can’t be it,” says Brommon.



He decided to forge a new path for his future and returned to Ghana.



The Ghana that he found torturous was gone and here was this buzzing, upwardly-mobile and cosmopolitan city Accra firmly asserting itself as the latest destination for those brave enough to follow their dreams.



That is exactly what Brommon needed.



“Accra was new to me because I had lived in a village. The place was buzzing with new ideas and people were starting new businesses. I met a friend who was into finance and every time I visited Ghana, I would see him and we would hang out. This was a well-to-do individual and he used to advise that whatever I do, I must make sure Ghana is part of the plan, and 



I could see it myself,” says Brommon.



The trips to Accra became more frequent and on those times, he received consistent orders from professionals in Ghana for quality suits and clothing from London, primarily because they couldn’t find top brands in Accra in keeping with their aspirations.



“They said that if they [could find] one supplier who had great quality [brands], they would buy it locally but it just didn’t exist,” recalls Brommon. That was all he needed to hear.



“I said ‘They want quality and easy access, so what if I am able to start my own brand.’ I was done with the UK. I told my wife that I needed to move back alone and have that freedom to move around and hustle and so, I asked her to take care of the kids whilst I managed. I felt I needed to follow this vision.” Even when people discouraged his ideas, Brommon believed differently. The desire to create a luxury bespoke suit line in Ghana had been birthed and there was no turning back.



His research took him to Italy, Amsterdam and Spain in search of the best manufacturers of suits and he struck deals with them. It felt good to start a journey on his own.



“I said if it doesn’t work, at least I would have tried. I remember the factory [I had approached] told me I needed about £20,000 and I didn’t have a penny. So, I said to [them], ‘Sign me up and agree to the terms



and give me six months and if I don’t pay that money back to you, we can cancel’, ” says Brommon.



His pitch worked and with the necessary tools that he needed and £50 to his name, he returned to Accra and started knocking on every door he could find to tell people about his bespoke suits.



His biggest hurdle was trying to convince professional,



well-heeled Ghanaians to fork out $1,200-$1,400-a-piece for an unknown designer. But Brommon was convinced all he needed was one client and the rest would be history.



“This was 2014 and everyone [asked] ‘Why should I buy from you when I can spend the same amount of money on a Gucci or Tom Ford suit?’ I was on the street pitching for business for three months before one person known to be a fashionable lawyer decided to give my brand a try,” says Brommon.



After four weeks, the suit was delivered from Italy and the feedback was a resounding success. One order turned to multiple requests and Brommon was able to repay his manufacturer in three months.



As he helped the President of Ghana try on his sleek, sharp suit, it was clear to Brommon that his vision was slowly taking shape. As a recognizable force in the luxury suit and menswear market in West Africa and as founder of Brommon and Laxiri with a flagship store in Accra, he now has his eyes set on the rest of the continent.

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The Right Fit: Designing Bespoke Suits For Ghana’s Affluent

When opportunity knocks, one needs to know how to open the door. Entrepreneur Kenny Annan-Jonathan, who has Ghanaian roots, did exactly that, highlighting the necessity for football players to be able to express who they are through fashion.



Kenny Annan-Jonathan recently made history as the first-ever creative director for English Premier League football club, Crystal Palace. Annan-Jonathan, who also doubles as the founder of bespoke sports marketing agency, The Mailroom, has spent the past four years amplifying the human side of athletes by launching them into non-traditional spaces and helping them to connect with traditional and non-traditional audiences.



Born in Battersea, South London, Annan-Jonathan, whose mother emigrated from Ghana to the UK, always had an affinity for the creative industry.



“I knew I was into the creative arts but I didn’t know what space I wanted to go into. I started with graphic design which led into fashion. I don’t have any form of higher education because I left school at sixth form from Southfields Community College, and after that I have been figuring out the world of business from the age of 18,” says Annan-Jonathan.



That learning process included launching a clothing line in the mid-2000s which became one of the most prominent streetwear brands in London, according to Annan-Jonathan.



With the clothing line taking off, Annan-Jonathan’s business amassed a large following and soon started getting patronage from celebrities and athletes. One of those was footballer Wilfred Zaha, who played for Crystal Palace.



“We built a good friendship and after some time of purchasing our clothes, he wanted to create his own brand and they asked me if I could help him to build his own brand, which led me to create a new brand that we would become co-owners in, called Long Live [Studio].”



Very soon that friendship blossomed into a business partnership when Annan-Jonathan noticed a gap in Zaha’s brand.



“I would go with him to his business meetings to leverage the clothing brand that we had. I realized there wasn’t a lot of people around at the time that were helping him within the business space and he was going in on his own. I advised him during those meetings and I earned his trust, and he became my first client,” recalls Annan-Jonathan.



After doing some work with Zaha, word-of-mouth began to spread and very soon, Annan-Jonathan was inundated with enough work that he needed the infrastructure to help him cope with the demand. That was when The Mailroom was established.



The business, which was founded in 2017, has a core goal to increase visibility for brands and talent in sport though creativity and organic partnerships.



The idea was simple. Athletes are more than just sportsmen. They are brands and that generates business. Traditional agents only deal with the sports contracts, which are usually negotiated in one to four-year cycles. The rest of the time, these athletes are left without key support in terms of mentorship, financial literacy or assistance in navigating life, not just sports.



“Naturally that is where The Mailroom came in. We are a boutique agency that works with people to understand the value that we bring for them and also understand how we can help them to navigate things the right way.”



During his time working with Zaha, Annan-Jonathan saw an opportunity, which he then brought to the attention of the owner of Crystal Palace.



“Before I became the creative director for Crystal Palace, I had emails that were sent to the owner of Crystal Palace saying, I believe there was a space for a creative director here and this is before anyone started thinking about it. Especially when it comes to fashion, it’s about having your finger on the pulse and when it comes to a conversation about who the athletes are, naturally fashion comes into that because that is a way of them expressing who they are. So, I just said if these two things are colliding, in the future, you can naturally see a road map to see that fashion is going to be incorporated into sports a lot more,” says Annan-Jonathan.



And he was right. The Cleveland Cavaliers would appoint artist Daniel Arsham as creative director for the team while the New York Knicks hired Kith founder Ronnie Fieg as creative director. Annan-Jonathan, believes that sports brands need to, now more than ever, be creative in their approach towards connecting with wider audiences and building brands.



“My role is to come in look at the company as a whole and say, ‘how do we continue to expand what is going on and where do we miss the mark when it comes to reaching our audiences’. My first point of what I need to do is product and merchandise, so apparel and what they sell in the merch store. The reason I say we need to start there is about building [a] community and apparel is a good way of building [a] community.”



Traditionally, football clubs try to sell training products to people who don’t care about training so day-to-day, the people going to the games, and die-hard fans only wear clothes there and they don’t wear it anywhere else. So, fashion has to transcend the sport because there are many different people that support the game,” says Annan-Jonathan.

Kenny Annan-Jonathan; image supplied2

The Entrepreneur Working With Crystal Palace FC And Building A Brand That Transcends Football

Hayet Rida retails high-end home products and jewelry but her story is of resilience and tenacity.



From motivational advice and founding a high-end candle brand to entrepreneurial endeavors with homeware and jewelry, Ghanaian-born Hayet Rida has a take on her unique selling point – and the answer might surprise you.



“I proudly call myself the pivot queen and I am the chief pivot officer in my life because everything about my business is basically a combination of what other people call failures. But to me, they are all stepping stones of how I got here,” says Rida.



She credits her mother for her unique ability to overcome adversities and turn them into life-changing opportunities where others might simply give up.



“One of my blessings is I got my dad and my mum’s ability to execute [dreams] until [they are] done. My mother has shaped everything I am. She is the chief hustle officer. When I was growing up, there was a school trip [to France] and she was a single mum of five kids and you can’t just pull a $3,000 bill on my mum because that was a lot of money back then.



“She didn’t have the money but she made a plan and said ‘I am going to rent out my car and sell this and that in the house’. She was like, ‘we are going to figure out how to get you on that trip’. This woman was not even ashamed to say ‘I am going to sell some of my prized possessions like pots and art work’ to put me on that trip,” recalls Rida.



That anecdote stuck with Rida well into her adulthood. After spending the past 13 years working in the advertising space with global brands like Meta, Rida recently launched her luxury jewelry line in Chicago called KHOI. She has mastered the skills needed, as both a jewelry designer and creative director.



When it came time to build her store, even though she had no money, Rida would lean on her mother’s advice, to find a way to make her dream a reality.



“I remember we had to do flooring and the first thing I did was go into my closet and say, ‘what am I selling?’ So, everything in the store is me selling my clothes and my bags. I started teaching people classes on creativity and charged $100 per person – I will have 20 people a class. The next week, I am going to do small consultations with brands. If you tell yourself, ‘I can’t do it’, then you are not trying hard enough. You will find a way if you want it; the same way my mum tried to find a way to get me on that school trip.”



The launch of KHOI is testament to Rida’s resilience and tenacity. Her journey towards becoming an influencer was motivated by her desire to share her life experiences in the hope that it would encourage others going through similar trials.



“I am a chronic over-sharer and 10 years ago, I had gone through a really bad breakup so I felt ugly because I was plus-sized. I grew up hating myself and I actually didn’t know I was beautiful until I was 25. I remember coming out of that relationship and saying I am going to learn this confidence thing that I read about on the internet. I am going to figure out how and I am going to document it for myself, and that is the power of influencers who last, because we didn’t start it to make money. I started for myself.”



After amassing a following on her personal blog, where she shares everything, from ‘growing up fat in Ghana’ to ‘how to create boundaries’, Rida says her mother sparked her next eureka moment, which came in the form of candles.



“My mum burns candles the way earth makes oxygen. There is always about 15 candles burning in the house. And I always liked the smell. So, I said let me make my own and I found the right team and I said, ‘let’s make it happen’.”



That gave birth to AÏYA CANDLE CO which took off and soon transitioned into luxury home products. Along the way, Rida got an opportunity to work with a brand to develop her own unique line of jewelry.



“They wanted to collaborate with me because they loved my luxury taste. They said you design a capsule collection with us and the deal was interesting because you almost make your own brand and they are the people behind it. I said to them, ‘I would only do it if you let me do the packaging’ because I didn’t like the packaging. So, we came up with a deal where I would name the brand, call it what I wanted, design the packaging, and they would be the back end of it. I called it the KHOI Studio.”



With the deal closed, Rida ordered 10,000 pieces of packaging in anticipation of the launch. Then disaster struck. The brand decided to pull out of the deal last minute.



“The world did not know about the brand yet so technically I could just cancel the whole thing and move on with my life and continue with AÏYA CANDLE. So, I said I was going to launch regular everyday accessories until I finish with the packaging and move on. A year later, I have a store and that is [why] I call myself the pivot queen because anybody else would cancel the deal and just let everything go. But I trust myself as a person and I always trust that I will always figure it out,” says Rida.



As she has slowly grown in her confidence as a jewelry designer, the vision for KHOI has also become clearer. For Rida, it’s all about having full control of her art and creation, and reliving the remarkable stories of artists her mother told her about as a kid.



“I remember my mum used to collect art pieces and she would say only five of these were made and the next art looks nothing like the other one. I remember the stories my mum used to tell and I felt like that’s what I want as a brand.”



KHOI pieces are one-of-a-kind items that are never restocked. Once a collection is over, Rida creates an entirely new range which means her followers always have unique pieces to select from. And in a world where the customer is king, Rida has managed to find a blend between maintaining artistic control of her creations and keeping her customers eager and excited for more.

Hayet Rida, image supplied

The Ghanaian Entrepreneur Selling Luxury As ‘Chief Pivot Officer’  

Lawyer and Founder of Law City, Dorothy Adu-Mfum tells FORBES AFRICA about what it means to her to be able to help others gain access into what is widely seen as an incredibly exclusive industry. 



There’s an informal but rather well-known term given to the top five prestigious law firms in the United Kingdom (UK). It’s called the Magic Circle. These firms, which all specialize in corporate law, are seen as exemplary, based on their outstanding and distinguished results. Securing a seat at the table with the best of the best would certainly be a tall order. However, Ghanaian-born Dorothy Adu-Mfum has done just that.



She is one of a few black women, bucking a trend in the UK of a white and male-dominated legal sector. As a training solicitor with one of the Magic Circle firms – namely Allen &amp; Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May – Adu-Mfum has managed to carve out a niche that many from her background have found impossible to achieve.



The services provided by these legal firms at the highest levels have created a social divide between those privileged enough to attend the best universities and those from low-income backgrounds. This makes the journey towards becoming a lawyer for black Britons extremely difficult.



Not only do you need to get the right A-levels, attend the right universities – which the top law firms recruit from – and secure a first-class degree, you also need to have vacation schemes and internships in order to achieve a training contract with a firm, before finally qualifying as a lawyer. A seemingly arduous task for anybody from a disadvantaged economic background to achieve, this is what led Adu-Mfum to create Law City.



“In Ghana, I came from a middle-class background so everything was provided for me and I had all the opportunities. Then I came to London and realized that I was from a working-class background. I had to work from the age of 16 which meant I couldn’t go for various internships or vacation schemes or insight days. Although I graduated with a first class, I found it difficult to transfer the theory aspect into the practicality needed for applying to law firms,” says Adu-Mfum.



Despite the fact that she got the first-class degree, Adu-Mfum faced all the disadvantages her socio-economic background presented her. She did not attend the prestigious universities that law firms recruited from and her need to work two jobs to make ends meet meant that she did not have the practical experience that law firms were looking for.



“I decided to no longer focus on law and went into banking for about three years, and I got promoted to the lending services department. So, what I was doing was reviewing mortgage documents and business loans and I found out that I was still interested in law because I spent more time reviewing the legal elements instead of the financial elements,” says Adu-Mfum.



In order to qualify to receive a training contract, one has to first complete a Legal Practice Course (LPC). An LPC is a postgraduate course and the final educational stage for becoming a solicitor. You can only get it in one of two ways – either a law firm recruits you and pays for the program, or you self-fund it.



Adu-Mfum decided to do the latter after a discussion with her father who advocated that she return to her first love, which was law.



“While I was doing my LPC, I was also volunteering in the community. I had a lot of young people coming to me saying I am interested in law and I don’t know how to gain access or I have never been to a law firm before. So, I thought I should build a community of people who also want to gain access and together, we try and gain access.”



“My reason for that was I didn’t really want to go to an event by myself but if I had a group of people who wanted to gain access and were uninformed, and from similar backgrounds, it would be easier for us to achieve what we wanted to achieve together. That is where Law City came from,” recalls Adu-Mfum.



Law City aims to connect aspiring lawyers from low-income socio-economic backgrounds to the legal sector in London. Currently, the platform has over 3,000 aspiring lawyers and legal professionals with over 80% of its network from the aforementioned backgrounds.



Adu-Mfum’s first event was created at a law firm in London and was a resounding success. Two of the attendants secured an internship with a law firm and Adu-Mfum, through that experience, began to bolster her CV. Very soon, with the help of a legal mentor, she managed to improve her application and secure a training contract with a Magic Circle firm.



“I had a black boy who came to me and said, ‘I didn’t think this type of community existed and I didn’t think a legal career was possible for me until today’. We had people who were saying this is the first time they had been to a law firm. Our head of events has secured a training contract with a law firm. Before I started, I wasn’t a lawyer, I was an aspiring lawyer and I am now about to qualify as a lawyer with a Magic Circle firm,” says Adu-Mfum, regarding the milestones of herself and her online legal community.



Through Law City, Adu-Mfum is hoping to continue to create advantages for people from low-income backgrounds, which will hopefully reduce the barriers to entry in the legal profession in the UK.



The platform has expanded globally, due to the pandemic and the increase of virtual events, to include South Africa and Dubai.



Despite breaking numerous glass ceilings and paving the way for others, Adu-Mfum remains resolute in her quest to make it to the top of her profession, and to inspire the Law City community in spite of the insurmountable odds they may face.

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Access Granted: The Legal Professional Cementing Her Place In London

Opportunity abounds for retailers giving used clothing a second lease on life, but while some are reveling in the country’s current economic climate and contributing to the circular economy, the high-end designers are finding it difficult to compete and cope.



In an open-air market in Yaba, Lagos, Tobi Iddrisu, is getting ready to open her boutique and welcome the day’s first customers. She opened the store almost a decade ago with the goal of selling second-hand clothes from China.



Since that time, the store, as well as Iddrisu, have gone through several iterations. For the former, life began as a second-hand children clothing store before moving to incorporate toys and finally transitioning to focus on second-hand fast fashion goods for Gen Z and millennial women.



These days, her suppliers come from places like London, Germany and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) but China still leads the pack. Lately, her brother in Germany has begun sending her some electronic devices like old iPads, laptops and LED television sets which, according to Iddrisu, are beginning to sell rapidly.



For Iddrisu, the shift from her nine-to-five job as a customer service clerk at First Bank Nigeria to a second-hand market trader, has proven to be one of the best decisions of her life, for a number of reasons.



In those days, she took home a meager N250,000 ($330) and struggled to make that stretch to cover her monthly expenses, which included fending for her two boys.



Today, her sons are in one of the top private schools in Lagos and Iddrisu has also ventured into the real estate market with two rental units in her name. Moreover, she is now able to provide employment opportunities to five disadvantaged individuals who Iddrisu employs as sales assistants.



“Things were very good when we started but now there is a lot of competition. Those who supply quality second-hand goods are still thriving because the economy is very difficult,” says Iddrisu.



For her and many other second-hand merchants, business is booming. Cash-strapped Nigerians who cannot pay the prices in high-end retail outlets are flooding to markets in Yaba, Katangua and Asuwani to make their naira stretch as far as possible.



“We sell goods at least 200% or cheaper than those sold in boutiques on the island and for people who are already struggling to make ends meet, how can they buy brand-new items? This goes for all items like hair, cosmetics and electronics. It is simply not affordable buying these things brand new,” says Iddrisu.



The World Poverty Clock, a tool which provides up-to-the-minute poverty data across the world, puts Nigeria as the country with the second highest level of poor people at 71 million after India.



These are people who live below the poverty line of $2. The problem is further exacerbated when you consider the rate of inflation which, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), stood at an all-time high of 22.41% in May 2023.



This report also estimates that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of the monthly changes in the price of goods and services paid by Nigerians, rose to 24.82% in May. The NBS further cites that about 133 million Nigerians are living in multi-dimensional poverty.



From a lack of forex which has brought trade to almost a complete standstill since the beginning of the year, a devaluation of the naira coupled with challenges in swapping old naira notes for new ones, to the recent fuel subsidy crisis, the country’s economic woes seem far from over.



The report by the NBS shows that the inflationary rise was attributed to food and non-beverage products, electricity, gas and other fuel as well as clothing and footwear. Several initiatives that should have offered advantages to Africa’s largest economy, have also, unfortunately, been met with barriers to entry by Nigeria.



The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), for example, was supposed to provide regional integration of goods and services between African countries. However, Nigeria’s food import substitution policy is not favorable with the goals of the AfCFTA, according to a report by the World Bank.



This was further buttressed when, in August 2019, Nigeria’s former president, Muhammadu Buhari, closed Nigeria’s borders, effectively blocking trade between the country and its neighbors for about a year. The move was an attempt to stop neighboring Benin from re-exporting rice to Nigeria for a significantly higher margin, thereby reducing dumping of the product.



That closure has also led to an increase in the prices of clothes in the second-hand market.



“We get some items from neighboring countries like Benin and Ghana, and when the government shut down the border, a lot of vendors who were relying on their supply from these countries were affected. The lack of supply has increased the cost of some items in the second-hand market and they keep rising even today,” says Iddrisu.



According to American news platform, CBS, the global second-hand market is estimated to hit $350 billion by 2025 and for personal shopper, Bobby Smith, the surge in demand for second-hand products is great for business.



“I usually deal with high-end clients who want exclusive designer wear at affordable prices. For example, most of my clients are interested in second-hand exclusive designer bags which tend to have amazing resale value. I have seen a trend in clients opting for quality, used designer items instead of those brand-new ones from stores because they want to be economical with their spending, given the current economic climate,” says Smith.



The current economic state has actually led to sales orders from individuals with a higher disposable income opting for fairly-used designer items than brand-new ones.



“I am a club promoter in Ikoyi and that means I have to look my best every night. Most of my business comes from meeting [with] new venues and offering my services to the owners, which includes bringing in a crowd that would patronize their goods and keep the club buzzing. My appearance is extremely important so I need to keep up with the trends. I shop second-hand designer wear because there is a lot of originality especially if you know the right stores, because most designers never repeat their styles so you get one-of-a-kind pieces,” says Tola T.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



But not everyone is happy about the boom in second-hand clothing. For Lola Amusan, a fashion designer in Lagos, who makes her money designing customized, ready-to-wear clothes, it is a major issue.



“We actually create bespoke clothes for our customers and so the current state of the economy is having a big impact on our bottom line. You cannot comfortably cost how much an item is because every day you go to the market, fabric prices are changing. The unstable power supply means I am running my business on [a] generator 24/7, which means I am spending a lot of money on fuel,” she says.



About 25% of the Nigerian population are considered to be Gen Z and have an insatiable appetite for fashion pieces, according to Iddrisu.



“The young ladies of today want trendy items that no one has and they want items that are not too expensive so they can change them regularly without breaking the bank. Some of our tops sell for as low as N2,000 ($2) to N5,000 ($6),” she says.



Another contributing factor to the growth in the second-hand market relates to the volume of charitable clothing donations from the West. There are various news articles on how Africa has become fast fashion’s dumping ground, a trend which is leading to significant climate change issues for the continent.



As much as the second-hand market is great for cash-strapped Nigerians, there is also a detrimental effect on the local textile and garment industries.



“We simply cannot compete with the second-hand market and I feel the current state of the economy is going to drive a lot of designers, like myself, out of business. Something has to be done,” says Amusan.



One solution that has been suggested by experts is to perhaps transform the fashion economy into a circular one. A circular economy is one where waste is minimized by reusing and upcycling as well as leasing garments. Some have also advocated for an import ban of used clothing into Africa.



But the problem with that is it leaves millions of impoverished people in Africa’s most populous economy without the means to purchase affordable clothing. As it stands, Nigeria’s inflationary problems seem to have a long way to go before subsiding and the current President Bola Tinubu has his work cut out for him.



For people like Iddrisu, times are great and the boom in second-hand clothing is now birthing yet a new opportunity for her in the consumer electronics sector, in which she has opened a brand-new store in Ikeja, as well as provided employment to a further 10 individuals. It’s just another way that she has used the current economic climate to give herself and her employees a second chance at happiness and fulfilment.

Woman Goes Clothing Shopping

Less Is More: Nigeria’s Second-Hand Fashion Market Booms As Inflation Soars

Nana Kwasi Wiafe’s home country is a prevailing motif in his work that goes from fashion to home furniture to authentic storytelling.



When your name is associated with a Beyoncé production, recognition is in your stars. But Ghanaian Nana Kwasi Wiafe has always been a creative force. He contributed to Beyoncé’s 2020 musical album, Black is King, as part of the styling team that took home an Emmy Award in 2021 for ‘Outstanding Costume’, but his credits also include styling British-Ghanaian actor Michaela Coel in kente prints for the cover of US-based lifestyle magazine, Variety.



Wiafe is recognized for his collaborations with brands like Diesel, Dior, Apple Inc and HBO but it is his own spin on telling authentic Ghanaian stories that led him to his true passion and purpose, Very Ghanaian, a company he launched in 2019.



He describes it as a travel lifestyle brand showcasing his love and patriotism for Ghana, and proof that his country can also produce top-of-the-range fashion.



“As a stylist, I meet a lot of people and they always double-check if I am Ghanaian and I always respond that I am ‘very Ghanaian’. When I decided to create this brand, it was the name I went with. It meant that I am unapologetically Ghanaian and proud of who I am,” affirms Wiafe.



He credits his artistic genes to his dad who used to sell clothes but was also like a sculptor.



“He displayed the clothes like an art installation and people were so intrigued that they would come by and just look at it. So, being an artist was in my blood.”



Wiafe dropped out of university after a one-year diploma in business administration and a chance encounter with the show, America’s Next Top Model that inspired his modeling career.



He also wanted to change the stereotypes around modeling. “For me, it was all about showcasing self- acceptance, authenticity and self-love.”



After working as a model, his course changed.



“I realized that I saw myself as an executive. I wasn’t getting a lot of stylists to help style me for [photo]shoots and I had to pay for them and didn’t have the budget for it at the time,” he remembers. His response to these setbacks was to do the styling himself.



Very Ghanaian is now in four stores across Ghana offering international sales via its website.



“We are also launching a new project called Very Ghanaian Home; focused on Ghana-inspired furniture. Very Ghanaian is going towards a heritage legacy brand and also creating a movement,” says Wiafe, who believes that the key to improving Ghana’s creative space is to foster collaboration between brands.



“Your ability to grow in the space lies in recognizing that no man is an island. When you collaborate, you increase your chances of delivering the best possible outcome for your client.&#8221;



He is also the creative director of THOUARTKWASI, a “high-end styling brand that creates fashion editorial looks for global brands with an African twist”.



“I believe I am sharing the beauty of Ghana and Africa with the world. It feels amazing to be able to inspire the world using Ghanaian culture and heritage,” says Wiafe.

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The Creative And Stylist ‘Unapologetically Ghanaian’

Aisha Shehu is using fashion to shift the narrative of the Fulani people in Nigeria.



Aisha Shehu is on a mission to show the world the beauty of the Fulani culture as a modern Fulani woman.



The cultural detail and distinctive colors of the traditional outfits of the Fulani tribe always resonated with Shehu. Both her parents were civil servants so she credits her entrepreneurial spark to her creative and artistic side, which was a constant during her formative years.



However, her path to becoming the next emerging fashion trendsetter was an unconventional one.



The Fulani tribe is a nomadic tribe of herders who migrate with their cattle in search of land rich with grass and water. Where previously determined by the change in seasons, more recently,



climate change and desertification have led Fulani herdsmen to migrate to lands belonging to sedentary farmers, reportedly resulting in violent clashes between the two.



Despite this negative narrative of the Fulani in the media, Shehu, the founder of luxury clothing brand BABAYO, is looking to change that through the power of fashion. Born in Lagos to Fulani parents from Gombe in north-eastern Nigeria, Shehu grew up wearing traditional Fulani clothing during major public holidays such as Nigeria’s Independence Day. However, knowing her parents would not pay for her to attend fashion school, Shehu opted to go to business school in France instead. She also did a one-year degree in fashion while there. The plan was to start her own fashion business and put the skills she had acquired abroad to work.



“My mother told me to give her my CV so I could start looking for jobs. It took me long to create one not because it was hard to do, but because I did not want to return to the oil and gas sector and a nine-to-five job,” recalls Shehu.



Rather than look for employment, she came up with another plan. With the savings she accumulated teaching English to children in France, as well as money she made from her work experience in the oil and gas sector, Shehu decided to rent a space for her



business, buy her first sewing machine and hire a tailor.



For Shehu, ground zero involved coasting through the fashion business with no real strategy in mind



in terms of how to differentiate herself from the competition. She dabbled in casual, formal and bridal couture to make ends meet. The real turning point for the brand happened by default and not by design.



“Two years ago, when I was going through my closet with my sister, we found our old Fulani outfits that we wore as kids – the traditional ones. I remember saying how weird it was that we could not wear this all the time. And that is when the conversation started. From there, we wanted to find a way to make it modern, accessible and functional.” Before Shehu embarked on the new brand direction, she ran the idea by a few 



people. “They were like, am I sure this is the right time because of the backlash in the media?”



For Shehu, the answer was a resounding yes. The only way forward was to showcase the beauty of her culture.



And just like that, things began to take off. BABAYO began to form its own identity. The outfits became a hit and very soon, Shehu was designing variations of her latest creations, infused with other cultural elements.



The turning point came about through social media.



In 2021, she was contacted by Lagos Fashion Week, Nigeria’s top fashion event, on Instagram.



“I came home and got an invitation for the next emerging designers and people to look out for, and I was blown away because I didn’t know anyone.”



That invitation was for a digital show. The following year, Shehu got invited again but, this time, she was on the runway.



“I got called again! For a small and unknown brand like us to do a runway show was a big deal because you are walking alongside other established brands who have been around for years. I got to do that for Lagos Fashion Week; I took a bow on stage and that was a breakthrough moment for the brand.”



Since 2017, Shehu has increased her client base organically, with customers ordering her pieces from all over the world, including Qatar, Japan and Australia. She has also made it to the top 12 out of 400 designers to be accepted into the fashion accelerator program created by the African Development Bank. The long-term vision of BABAYO is to become a dominant brand in the luxury fashion sector. But the heart of it will always be the cultural heritage of the Fulani.

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Sartorial Diplomacy: Shifting The Narrative, One Outfit At A Time In Nigeria

Time is money for London-based luxury watchmaker William Adoasi, and he is now using it to support quality education in sub-Saharan Africa.



William Adoasi grew up in one of the roughest council estates in London and for as long as he could remember, wanted to get out. His parents emigrated from Ghana to the United Kingdom (UK) before Adoasi was born and, being the first of seven children, he saw first-hand the chaos that surrounded his estate in Peckham, South London.



A social housing project built by local authorities to provide shelter and other amenities like schools and shops, council estates in the UK have become notorious as breeding grounds for various social problems over the years.



This prompted two former prime ministers, David Cameron and Tony Blair, to advocate for the redevelopment of these estates citing their propensity to entrench poverty as well as create an environment for criminality to thrive, as the core reasons.



To shield Adoasi from the negative elements of the estate, his parents encouraged his education. Adoasi did well enough in school to secure a scholarship and move into a private boarding school in the midlands, and finally, out of the council estate.



“One day a fight broke out in a rugby game between my team and another team and I heard some of my teammates calling the other team ‘council estate scam’, not knowing that I grew up on a council estate myself. It really shaped the way I am in terms of my drive because there is always a part of me that wants to disprove the myth of a council estate boy who does not amount to anything in life,” says Adoasi.



Initially the drive was simply motivated by his need to create a luxury life far away from the tentacles of poverty that always gripped his childhood. His determination to succeed led him to drop out of university to start a sports academy, with which he made a six-figure income by the age of 19.



“I [ran] that for two years until the government pulled the funding, which meant that it wasn’t viable anymore,” says Adoasi.



After that stint, he worked in London as an insurance broker and recruiter. During this time, he went back to school and finished his education and, very soon, began to think outside the confines of his nine-to-five job for a way to make more money.



He was always interested in watches and by the time he was in the city, Adoasi was making enough money to upgrade his taste to the high-end brands, the likes of Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. That was when his light bulb moment happened.



“I wanted to find a middle ground of a watch that was super premium and has a high-end aesthetic, made with high-end materials but with a price point that wasn’t wild… I started speaking to multiple factories and haggling prices down between the factories until I perfected my sample batch,” says Adoasi.



At the age of 26, he quit his job and became the founder and lead designer of Vitae London.



“I felt that working in the city was a drain on me and that I had to do something with a bigger purpose where I wake up everyday and my motivation was not just money. Vitae means ‘lives’ in Latin. Our mantra from the get-go was to be the watch brand changing lives,” says Adoasi.



After launching the brand, Vitae London got shortlisted by Richard Branson to receive a startup loan of £20,000



(approximately $25,000 today) out of 10,000 applicants. To date, the brand has raised a total of $190,000 from the likes of US-based venture capital firm, Backstage Capital and, with that, total sales revenue to date is around £1.3 million ($1.6 million).



Adoasi has also kept his promise – 10% of everything the company makes goes back to empower children in sub-Saharan Africa to receive quality education. Through a partnership with charity organization, House of Wells, he has supported over 10,000 children with school uniforms and finance.



Vitae London is also currently stocked in leading US retailers, Macy’s and Nordstrom. The partnership with billionaire mogul Branson also helped attract other celebrities to the brand.



As Adoasi reflects, two things stand out for him.



“Firstly, entrepreneurship is about creating something much bigger than yourself… Secondly, money is a great motivator but if it is the only reason you get out of bed, then you have an unfulfilled life.”<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="15" height="14" src="">His next milestone is to be able to go to his parents and tell them they no longer need to work, and from the looks of things, time is on his side

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Time To Tell: The London-Based Watchmaker Supporting Education In Africa

Over the past two decades, Michael Blackson has made a name for himself as one of the most prolific comedians in Hollywood. From starring alongside Hollywood big wigs like Hip Hop icon Ice Cube in Next Friday and showing off his roasting chops on Nick Cannon’s Wild ‘n Out on MTV, to sold out shows in comedy clubs all over the United States, he is now a household name in the country he was once considered an immigrant.   



If someone told Michael Blackson, Hollywood actor and comedian, that he would one day be sitting in his $4 million penthouse in the middle of Sunset Boulevard in California, with his own sitcom months from airing on BET+ and produced by none other than billionaire TV mogul, Tyler Perry, he would have answered with one word – impossible. And nobody would have blamed him.



After all, this is the stuff of miracles and dreams. But for Blackson, that is exactly what happened. Raised by a single mother and the fifth of eight children, Blackson spent his early years in Ghana moving from village to village on account of his mother’s calling as an evangelist. His early childhood was spent between Nigeria and Liberia, where his mother remarried.



“We traveled so much that I missed several grades and when I got to the US at 13, they put me in the eighth grade even though the last class I took in Liberia was the sixth grade,” says Blackson.



That is when everything changed for him.



“My mother called the US ‘the Promised Land’ but I hated it when I came to America. I was homesick and I missed my brothers and I was now in this cold place and kids were making fun of me. Back home, we didn’t see anything wrong with a lot of things because we are all the same people.



“They said I was blacker than them and we never saw complexion back home. I didn’t realize that there were lighter Africans or darker ones and the kids made me realize that we were all different. They said things like ‘you have a gap in your teeth, your hair texture is different’ and it made me insecure,” says Blackson.



Channeling that insecurity and a natural affinity for speaking in public, Blackson eventually fell in love with comedy and the rest, as they say, is history. During his meteoric rise to the top, which includes starring alongside Eddie Murphy in Coming 2 America and making between $40,000 and $100,000 a night at his sold-out shows, Blackson returned to Ghana to visit his brothers who he had not seen in over 15 years.



“In 2001, I went back to Ghana. Walking around the area I grew up, I said ‘why does this place look the same?’ It had been over 27 years and nothing had changed. The kids were not in school and I found out that their parents could not pay their tuition fees which was $80 for the year. I remember going down the road and I paid for about four kids to go to school for a year. I then went to the village and the same problem was there. I said I am going to do something about this,” recalls Blackson.



It took him until 2019 to save up the $500,000 needed to build the Michael Blackson Academy in the village he once called home. The Ghanaian government has made senior secondary education free but the problem for parents who are struggling is that they still need to educate their children from kindergarten to junior secondary school.



“As African kids, we treasure education and we love to learn but for some reason, not everyone can afford to go to school. Whether they can’t afford the tuition, or they can’t pay for their uniform, there is always some problem that prevents many kids from going to school. I knew that if I was given the opportunity as a kid, I would go to school and I felt like every African felt this way. That is the main reason I always wanted to do something in education – to give back,” says Blackson.



The Michael Blackson Academy has a vision of providing free education for impoverished children in Ghana. The school currently has a capacity of 200 students and the entire program from feeding, to school uniforms, teacher’s salaries and tuition fees is self-funded by Blackson.



“My goal is that the top four students get the opportunity to study abroad through a partnership with a private school in the US, go to high school in the US and get an opportunity. All they have to do in return is to promise to go back home eventually and contribute to Ghana,” says Blackson.



The school officially opened its doors in January 2021. Students are selected with the help of a consultancy which ensures that Blackson’s goal of helping the most impoverished and in need families is achieved. His next goal is to expand The Michael Blackson Academy to Liberia as well as set up a not-for-profit foundation that will give back resources to those in need.



“You owe it to others to be a blessing. But my goal is to make an impact and it gives me so much joy to see the lives we are changing. We are currently in the process of raising money for another academy in Liberia.&#8221;

3rd Annual Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards

From Hollywood To Africa: The Comedian Creating Impact With Education

Former The Apprentice star Samuel Brooksworth is capitalizing on the remote working revolution by getting young skilled people to work from Africa for organizations around the world.



The market for remote workplace services is set to grow from $20.1 billion in 2022 to $58.5 billion by 2027, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets, a sector research and growth advisory firm in the United States (US), and Samuel Brooksworth, the CEO and founder of Remoteli is here to seize it.



The savvy London-born Ghanaian businessman is also famous for being on The Apprentice reality TV series on BBC One in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2016.



He got to sell his ideas and display his sales skills, which he has been honing from a young age, on the show. He started young.



At university, with his twin brother Andrew, he revitalized the African &amp; Caribbean Society, growing it from just 15 members to over 600 people. They then went on to launch a t-shirt business, JC Range, featuring Christian-themed messages and sold at youth events and major gatherings across the UK.



Their t-shirts did well and they quickly realized they had a knack for sales. After graduation, Brooksworth joined Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, a UK car rental service where once again his skills were put to test.



“At Enterprise, there was a culture called Elite Club where the top sellers in the organization are [rewarded] for their hard work. In my first eight months at the organization, I made [it to the] top five consistently out of about 500 people in the region. To put this in context, most people only make the Elite Club once or twice every one or two years and some sales people have never made it to the club. So when I [accomplished] that, it put my name at the top of the organization and I got the attention of area managers and different regional individuals,” recalls Brooksworth.



It was not long after that his wife, an avid fan of The Apprentice, insisted he too apply for the show. He did, and a week later, he received the call. For Brooksworth, getting on the show was not to win. It was to leverage the platform to gain visibility for his latest business idea.



“I felt I got the exposure and after the show I was able to connect with people I didn’t have access to beforehand. When I went on the show, the business idea [I presented] was similar to what I am doing now. On the show, they rejected the business idea but years later it has actually become one of the most successful businesses of any candidate. It’s a beautiful moment that what they didn’t see has grown to be as big as it is now,” says Brooksworth.



It came with a lot of hard work.



In a 2019 article in The Guardian, he writes: “I was taught by my parents that I needed to work 10 times harder than my white friends in order to be seen as equal. As a child, this made no sense. I thought education was very black and white. If my answers were right, they were right; if they were wrong, they were wrong. Why then would I need to work harder just to receive the same grades?”



&nbsp;His big business opportunity came during the Covid-19 pandemic.



“I was speaking to various senior executives, business leaders and C-Suite individuals [about] the challenges during the pandemic and a lot of them were struggling. They were paying huge bills [for] offices that were empty,” says Brooksworth.



However, it was a trip to Ghana with his wife that solidified the idea for his business, Remoteli.



“There were so many young people who were unemployed but were sharp and on the ball. But when I spoke to the adults, they would say the young people are lazy and don’t want to learn. I thought that was not true, rather there were not enough opportunities and if you give them the skills, I believed that they would thrive.”



Brooksworth decided to get these skilled young people to work remotely in Ghana for organizations around the world.



His company, Remoteli, is a tech-led on-demand staffing organization providing remote workers for companies and individuals worldwide offering a range of services – from virtual assistants to web developers and social media managers. The company has not raised any money yet and has grown rapidly by bootstrapping and word-of-mouth referrals.



“We are helping combat the rising graduate unemployment rates in Africa by providing opportunities for unemployed youth,” says Brooksworth.



The organization has grown rapidly from two employees to over 100 staff and they are currently in the business hubs of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria.



The pandemic has changed the way organizations work forever and for Brooksworth, the time to capitalize on this is now and in doing so, he is making a tidy profit and helping fellow Ghanaians get high-paying jobs with global companies whilst working from the comfort of their homes in Africa.

41C0D4EE-8EAA-47D9-B205-851E156F7A6E

The Ghanaian Capitalizing On Remote Working

Kojo Anim, a name to reckon with in the UK comedy club scene, says he has a new autobiography about to be launched, as we meet up with him in his new base in Los Angeles.



The world of stand-up comedy is not for the faint-hearted. One has to master the ability to perform under high pressure armed with original material, ensuring your audience is laughing every minute the entire duration of your set.



Sadly, the compensation most stand-up comedians receive for many years of their career is barely enough to make ends meet, but for the lucky few who have made it to superstardom such as Eddie Murphy, Kevin Hart, Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle.



It takes grit, persistence and most importantly, talent, to be able to compete at the highest level of this game and for Kojo Anim, popularly known by his stage moniker, ‘Kojo the Comedian’, this is what he always dreamed of ever since he decided to drop out of university almost three decades ago.



His story was one of overcoming impossible odds. By age five, Anim and his sister had to move into a foster home. Anim recalls the early years as we sit down in a restaurant in the middle of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles for our chat.



As he ponders his move to Hollywood, one sentiment dominates.



“You know I have been self-employed for 25 years? I was thinking about it the other day and I had to pat myself on the back because I have been able to support myself, my family, travel and do everything through just comedy.”



And he is right. Not many comedians make it past their first decade as a professional let alone achieve some of the impressive milestones Anim has under his belt.



And it almost didn’t happen.



Foster care opened Anim up to the promise of a brighter future. The plan at that time was to go to university and then move into sports science because he loved football and if that failed, he would become a teacher. However, a summer in the United States (US) proved to be the catalyst that would set him on an entirely new course.



“I went to the US for a program called Camp America in the summer. My mum was living there at the time so it was an excuse to go there. On the weekend, I got into comedy watching Martin Lawrence on TV and I fell in love with what he was doing. I saw him on stage and he was making people laugh and I knew from then that this is what I wanted to do. I had never laughed more honestly in my life apart from that moment. I felt like my life was about to change,” says Anim.



When he returned to the United Kingdom (UK), Anim was a changed man. He joined a comedy workshop for about two months to hone his skills and then hit the comedy clubs to cut his teeth in the unforgiving world of stand-up. And he has not looked back since.



His journey from that point has been one of many firsts. He was one of the first Africans with his own prime-time radio and TV show in the UK, the first black British comedian to join the cast of MTV’s biggest comedy improv show, Wild ‘N Out, as well as one of the pioneers of the UK weekly comedy club scene.



“In the US, they were doing stand-ups in comedy clubs every Sunday at the Boston Comedy Club and I said ‘why don’t we have this in the UK’? We only had one big show every three months and I said we need something regular every week in the UK.”



The UK versions were held at local night clubs every Sunday and Anim invited some of the biggest up-and-coming comedians at the time like Hart and Chapelle to perform alongside some of the best in the UK. His audience grew rapidly from 90 people to over 300 each night and for the next eight years, Anim dominated the UK comedy scene.



However, things took a turn for the worse. In an industry where relationships are key, a series of unfortunate events including a movie which took nine years to get off the ground, had a negative impact on Anim’s brand on account of the finance for the project falling through and as a result, nobody, including Anim, who was the writer of the project, got paid.



“That business fell apart and that is when I met my son’s mum and that was my hiding place. So, I started posting videos online. She was my escape, my hiding place and the person that helped me get up a little bit. That film really damaged me. But my mum said I should let it go because the size of the loss is the size of the gain. I had to get rid of it and do a lot of therapy to recover,” says Anim.



The setback stifled Anim’s growth and the once-promising comedian fell on hard times. But through it all, he never lost his resilience and persistence. The light at the end of the tunnel came in 2018 when the Britain’s Got Talent team reached out to Anim to participate in the program.



He was suddenly faced with a very tough decision.



“I had only £30 ($40) in my bank when I did the audition. I was thinking ‘how do I get to the show’. I was like ‘I took a risk coming here’. I was on Wild ‘N Out, I had my own radio show on Capital XTRA and I’ve done all these things, why am I on Britain’s Got Talent? People thought I should be a judge. But I realize if you act like you are somewhere you are not, how can people help you?”



He won the coveted Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell on his first audition for the show and that catapulted Anim again back to comedic superstardom.



“That was the most vulnerable I’ve ever been because it was about I can let myself down but I can never let my son down. Never, it’s impossible, so don’t act like you are bigger than the opportunity, I had to humble myself. This was a chance to be the new guy again but with 20 years’ experience and that is what rose me back up to the surface.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Following his success, he lined up a string of comedy tours across the UK until Covid-19 shut everything down.



Off the back of that momentum, he sits in Hollywood today with a new autobiography about to be launched as well as opening up for Chappelle while waiting patiently to dominate Hollywood and leave his unique mark once again.

Author: Peace Hyde

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA