We revisit a conversation we had in 2023 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 as a young Ghanaian woman who emigrated but found her way back home again, determined to establish a tech business that would uplift fashion designers and artisans across the Continent to improve their livelihood and promote the use of sustainable practices. During our conversation, Pinaman answers questions on, among other things: why she launched ADJOAA and the problem it is trying to solve; 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, Spotify and Amazon Music.

Imagine you are an entrepreneur. You have a great idea that will solve a problem, but the enabling environment in which the solution is to be implemented is poor. In other words, the business infrastructure and other supports that are a given in more developed countries either do not exist or are grossly underdeveloped. This is a challenge many Caribbean entrepreneurs face, especially tech entrepreneurs, though admittedly and depending on the country, things are slowly improving.

The same obtains in Africa, with some countries having better-developed infrastructure than others. A few years ago, we began exploring the tech scene in Africa as an untapped market and strategic trade partner for Caribbean countries.

Though we have a long history together, thanks to the Atlantic slave trade and colonial rule, African and Caribbean countries still have not forged close ties that could collectively lift all of our nations. However, with current geopolitics being as it is, Caribbean and African countries have begun to take the first steps to strengthen existing links.

In this episode, we will be discussing ADJOAA (pronounced “ajwa”), a curated multi-brand online marketplace specialising in premium, high-fashion and sustainable brands by African designers and Black-owned, including Caribbean, 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, while also creating a fully circular and environmentally conscious business.

 

Introducing our guest

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 building a business, especially an online marketplace, several balls must be juggled, such as establishing and managing relationships with suppliers, building a solid and growing customer base, generating sales, getting orders safely from suppliers to customers, and identifying and managing relationships with key strategic partners (such as banks, logistics and other service providers). All too often, we pay considerable attention to the customers and sales, but may not also appreciate how critical suppliers and service providers are, and the need for those relationships to be carefully monitored and tracked.

In living virtually all of her adult life in more developed countries, Pinaman knew she needed to manage her expectations, but unsurprisingly, the learning curve was more than she anticipated. However, Pinaman has developed an enviable knowledge of the supply chain dynamics on the Continent, along with existing challenges. More importantly, she remains committed to helping build the ecosystem to make African-produced goods more accessible and 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 were mentioned during the episode, or might otherwise be useful:

 

 

Images credit:  P Owusu Banhene;  ADJOAA (Pinterest)

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

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez