Meet Five Women Founders from Ghana Who Scaled For Success #WomensDay

Yvette Ansah and I share laughs and stories over coffee in Accra, March 2020 (Pre-Pandemic)

Ten years ago, intoxicated by the “Africa Rising” propaganda at your favorite Ivy League grad schools, I left New York for the second time to return to West Africa. I chose Ghana’s capital Accra for my second coming to build my new post-grad life. In the decade that has passed, I have seen the rise and fall of many business leaders and witnessed Accra’s transformation into the December parte-after-parte destination for the spawn of the Afropolitans. While I turn my nose up as the cost of living skyrockets in Accra, one thing keeps me in Ghana––the drive and rise of Ghana’s Women Entrepreneurs. 

For this International Women’s Day, I’m celebrating the women entrepreneurs in Ghana who, with grit, grace, and vision, show what is possible when women decide to build. I’ve watched countless women start ventures in the last decade and scale them right in front of my eyes. What I’ve witnessed matches entrepreneurship reports that rank Ghana as one of the best places for business women in Africa.

Here are five Ghanaian women founders whose growth will inspire you!

1. Yvette Ansah, Cafe Kwae

The first time I met Yvette was when she walked over to my mom’s house to deliver a salad. I later learned that she was a lawyer who had given up a career working in corporate law in the US to return home to Ghana. She started making salads first for herself, then for family and friends. She would send out weekly menus via emails and Whatsapp, and before long, offices were ordering en masse. Then, the brand was Lovefreshbites, a home-based fresh salad, and sandwich food service. Before long, the demand grew more considerable than she could handle. When an opportunity came to rent space from the newly built One Airport building Yvette decided to run a restaurant. With the support of friends and family, she got the capital to rent the space, and today Cafe Kwae is one of a few restaurants in Accra where you have to say a prayer or call in a reservation in advance. The menu is fresh and delicious, and the ambiance is light with colorful. Today, Yvette runs two restaurants; the flagship Cafe behind Holiday Inn and Kwae Terrace, which opened March 2020 as the pandemic hit. Like most GeyHeys, she doesn't like to toot her own horn, but Yvette truly is an inspiration, and every time I am lucky enough to catch her at work, I bask in her light. 

2. Lydia Forson, Kinky Matters

M.anifest introduced me to Lydia at a house party ten years ago. As is often the case for Scorpios, she and I hit it off instantly. I was a newbie to the Ghana film industry. So when M.anigest said she was an actress, I didn’t know he meant award-winning talent. I would get to see Lydia on-screen in her self-produced film––A Letter To Adam. She has a lot of range when she performs, and acting comes easy. I’ve watched Lydia grow outside of the box so perfectly made to contain African women in entertainment with a ferocity that often has her trending more for digital activism than for movies. She has taken on bullies and served them body positivity instead. She isn’t afraid to take a stand no matter how unpopular. 

As if that wasn’t enough, five years ago, Lydia (who has been natural since we met) decided to launch a startup to make and sell hair products. She sent me a tub of Kinky Matters’ first product––the secret recipe. She was mixing with her mom in their kitchen.

Today Kinky Matters has expanded its line of products from the original secret recipe to include oils for men and women, soaps, shampoo, and conditioner. Their products are available online and in Accra, Kumasi, and beyond.  What I love about Lydia is that she is unapologetically disruptive. I never know what she will do next, but I always expect brilliance and bravery.

3. Abynnah Sekyiamah, CleanEats

I met Abynnah and her sister Nana when I invited them to participate in a fashion workshop I planned for Printex at the African Regent Hotel. They had co-founded the African print brand––Maksi in 2009, making clothes for men and women.  Abynnah was the creative director. Several years after I met Abynnah, she enrolled in a part-time MBA program. During her MBA, Abynnah made other life changes––she lost a lot of fat after following a healthy, nutritious diet. That’s when she got the idea for Clean Eats, a fast-food restaurant to take the guesswork of eating healthy. Clean Eats makes salads, juices, and sandwiches. Once the flagship store in Tema was up and running, she opened a second branch in Accra’s trendy East Legon suburb. In 2021, Clean Eats opened a third branch in the bustling suburb of Haatso. What gets me about Abynnah is that she has no idea how amazing all this is. Who scales a healthy fast food brand from one to three branches in an African city in eight years then takes their star employee on an all-expense-paid trip to Dubai on holiday? Abynnah did that! What a woman@

4. Kuorkor Dzani, Twist & Locs

The first time I met Kuorkor was in 2013, at a networking event hosted by Afua Osei back when she was doing SavvyMadame. I was doing media coverage for GoWoman Magazine, and Kuorkor was there to teach students and young Ghanaian women in the audience how to style their natural hair. She opened Twist and Locs in 2009. I didn’t know how much of a gift her natural hair salon was until I decided to go from bald to fro. Luckily by then, Kuorkor had opened a new branch in East Legon. The service is impeccable. When you make an appointment on their website, they attend to you within ten minutes of arrival. When you sit down on the chair, the stylists treat natural hair with the required tenderness. Before they put any product in your hair, they ask. When they wash your hair, they let you know if the water will be hot or cold before it comes out of the faucet. And whenever you give feedback for improvement, they listen. It is no surprise that Kuorkor announced the third branch’s launch on Spintex Road last year. Growth is unstoppable when you’ve supported and trained your staff to the level of consistency that Kuorkor has accomplished over the past decade. 

5. Regina Honu, Soronko Academy

I met Regina at a Global Shapers event in Accra in 2013. In June that year, I sent a photographer to KNUST because she was hosting a coding workshop for high school students. News of high school girls learning to write Javascript, I wanted to feature in GoWoman Magazine. Some 40 girls attended the first Tech Needs Girls event that Regina hosted. Her passion for making tech accessible and inclusive was why she walked away from a job in the IT department of a local bank. As the MD of the newly founded Soronko Solutions, Regina could develop applications for clients and pass on tech skills to the next generation of Ghana’s women in tech. Fast forward to December 2018, and I’m in Johannesburg for a Gates Foundation Goalkeepers conference. Who walks on stage to talk about making tech, coding, and digital skills accessible to girls and women? Regina! She now runs an academy with 10,000 girls, women, and youth trained with tech and digital skills from that first Tech Needs Girls workshop in Kumasi. She is globally respected and sought-after for her insights on tech and inclusion. 

If you’ve read this far thank you! Happy International Women’s Day continue to #Breakthebias in business.