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Fashion entrepreneur explores Ghana’s market

Fashion business is highly competitive. Only those with creative skills can survive. Hope Okonkwo has taken his expertise to Ghana. DANIEL ESSIET reports

Hope Okonkwo is the chief executive, L’insoumis Ghana Limited, a men’s wear retail business in Accra, Ghana.

His business provides a selected mix of stylish dress shirts and shoes that appeal to business executives and working professionals in Ghana.

As a young man living and working in New York, Okonkwo knew that style mattered. He was a regular shopper in Soho and on Fifth Avenue, his favourite stores were Express, Club Monaco, and Kenneth Cole, all in the United States.

He said: “Having lived in New York for most of my working life, I was imbued with the importance of having a unique sense of style. I was a regular shopper in Soho and on Fifth Avenue; my favourite stores being Express, Club Monaco, and Kenneth Cole. Yet, after moving to Africa seven years ago, I realised that the fashion industry on the continent was broken. Low-cost production centres outside the continent were pushing sub-par products on the African consumer, facilitated by South African clothing chains and franchises of global brands, and spurred on by the rapidly expanding shopping malls serving a growing middle class.”

Now, the 40-year-old Okonkwo  dedicated to bring the concept to Accra. He has built an online presence, a supply chain, and a logistics partnership for his e-commerce business.

On how long he has been in the business, he  said: “I have been in business for the past one and a half years, though in the first six months, I was engaged in market research and business formation activities.’’

He started the  business with $15,000 as capital, but the business is growing.

“The business is still in the early stages of customer acquisition and distribution channel development so any additional valuation of the business is premature until customer traction is firmly established,” he said.

According to Okonkwo,  L’insoumis is a direct-to-consumer contemporary men’s wear brand that utilises internationally-sourced materials and international best practices in garment- and footwear-making to give working professionals and business executives a select range of stylish, well-constructed, and durable shirts and shoes that are great-fitting as an alternative to poorly made, though inexpensive, imports available on the market.

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