We continue our Tech in Africa series with a conversation with Pinaman Owusu-Banahane, the Founder and CEO of ADJOAA, a curated multi-brand online marketplace specialising in premium and sustainable fashion and lifestyle products made by African designers and Black-owned businesses. Pinaman shares her journey to establish a tech business in Ghana and answers questions on, among other things: the entrepreneurial and start-up space in Ghana; the successes ADJOAA has been able to realise to date; and the challenges of creating an online marketplace that connects Africa to the World.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music!!

Outside of colour, style and fit, most of us are not paying much attention to the clothes we wear. However, globally, and especially among younger generations, consumers want and expect greater alignment between their personal values and those of the brands and causes they support. For these younger generations, the state of our natural environment – the need to preserve it and eliminate harmful practices – is top of mind. As a result, and across all sectors, there has been a growing emphasis on adopting greener and more sustainable practices that have a positive impact on the environment.

Although fashion might seem like a lightweight industry with respect to its environmental impact, according to Business Insider:

  • The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, which is more emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
  • The fashion industry is also the second-largest consumer of water worldwide.
  • The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second.
  • Washing clothes, meanwhile, releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean each year — the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles.
  • Textile dyeing is the world’s second-largest polluter of water, since the water leftover from the dyeing process is often dumped into ditches, streams, or rivers.
  • The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of all industrial water pollution worldwide.

To that end, some existing apparel companies have been incorporating greener practices into their operations, and new businesses are emerging that have sustainability at the core of their mission. One of these new players is ADJOAA (pronounced “ajwa”), a curated multi-brand online marketplace specialising in premium, high-fashion and sustainable brands by African designers and Black-owned businesses.

Launched in Ghana in November 2021 with just 20 brands, ADJOAA has been experiencing exponential growth, and now boasts over 100 brands and 20,000 curated products from across 25 countries in its portfolio. The company is continuing its mission of making ethically-produced, sustainably-made African and Black-owned fashion and lifestyle products more accessible globally, whilst also creating a fully circular and environmentally conscious business.

  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA
  • Photo courtesy of ADJOAA

 

Introducing our guests

Pinaman Owusu Banahene

Born and raised in Ghana, but thereafter emigrating to Australia and New Zealand, and more recently the United Kingdom, Pinaman Owusu-Banhene is a Fashion Tech Entrepreneur, and ADJOAA’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. She has over 15 years of experience in strategy, brand development, e-commerce, emerging markets, and social impact gained, through positions held in New Zealand and Australia. Before founding ADJOAA, she worked as a Senior Advisor focusing on employment policies, health and investment attractions.

Pinaman was also the curator of New Zealand’s premier Africa Fashion Festival, growing the event from a community of 100 to 500 over three years and serving as a conduit for African brands to the Australasian fashion market. She has been featured widely and is often quoted in the fashion press.

Pinaman is a Chevening Scholar. Thanks to her innovative approach and efforts with ADJOAA, Pinaman was named one of five trailblazing women globalising African fashion by OKayAfrica publication in 2023. She was also recognised by the University of Auckland as one of its 40U40 Alumni shaping the future, one of 15 retail and e-commerce entrepreneurs to watch in 2022 by the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, and was also celebrated as one of the most notable people to have attended the London School of Economics and Political Science as part of University’s 125 anniversary and Black History Month in 2020.

 

Insights into our conversation

In the earlier instalments of our Tech in Africa series, we focussed on various aspects of the enabling framework. In this episode, we have the first-hand experience of a tech entrepreneur establishing and running a start-up in Ghana. In living virtually all of her adult life in more developed countries, though she knew she would need to manage her expectations, it is not surprising that the adjustment required may have been more than she anticipated.

In building an online marketplace, there are several balls to juggle, including, establishing and managing relationships with African artisans and fashion designers, building a solid and growing customer base, generating sales, and getting orders safely from suppliers to customers. As a result, Pinaman has and continues to develop a comprehensive knowledge of the supply chain dynamics on the Continent, along with the challenges of making African-produced goods more accessible and getting them into the hands of global customers.

Below are key questions posed to Pinaman during our conversation.

  1. Tell us a bit more about ADJOAA, and why you started it. Also, what is the problem that ADJOAA is trying to solve?
  2. You started as a public health and public policy specialist. Tell us a bit of your story, and what drove you to set up ADJOAA.
  3. Having lived and worked outside of Africa for over a decade and now having to do business on the Continent, what has that been like?
  4. How would you describe the entrepreneurial and start-up space in Ghana?
  5. What are some of the successes ADJOAA has been able to realise to date?
  6. In creating an online marketplace what have been some of the challenges that ADJOAA has been and continues to grapple with?
  7. What has been the biggest lesson you have had to learn in running ADJOAA?
  8. Where would you like to see ADJOAA in the next three to five years?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit:  P Owusu-Banahene; ADJOAA;  Prince Akachi (Unsplash); Daniel Mensah Boafo (Unsplash); Oladimeji Odunsi (Unsplash)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez