AHA is a dream come true — Maame Esi
For someone with a media and banking background, one could not easily have guessed that Maame Esi Acquah would end up as the founder and CEO of AHA, a company which deals in accessories and lingerie.
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Showbiz caught up with her last Friday and she opened up on how it all started for her with AHA.
Interestingly, the name is simply an expression, “you know the kind you make when you have really searched for something and you finally find it, you go like aha, that is exactly where I got the name from,” she said.
According to Maame Esi, the whole idea of a lingerie started because she realised plus size women found it difficult to get their bra size, “I realised that it was very difficult for plus size women to get their bra size. I started by organising lingerie parties in my house selling top foreign brands.
“So I said to myself, what if I add specifications to them to meet the African woman’s needs, talking of proper back support, stronger straps and durability so I moved from Banking which I had done for seven years to do that,” she said.
Though the retail outlet at the Accra Mall is five years old, the whole idea to go into it is about eight to nine years old.
Currently AHA has branches at the Accra Mall and West Hills Mall and the idea to expand it to other venues is in the making.
Going into the lingerie industry came with its own challenges and Maame Esi shared them with us, “the lingerie industry is built by Europeans and it is capital intensive, the technical knowledge is quite complex so it was quite difficult at the beginning
“ We needed a manufacturer who will understand our financial strength because we saw the picture of building an African brand with an European manufacturer,” she said.
Maame Esi hinted that her outfit will be launching a special bra in October this year to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness, “durability is very important to us, we have something for everybody.”
AHA also deals in swimwear for both male and female as well as Lawen Taylor brand of under wear for men.
It’s not only about lingerie for AHA but what they call Ah-ccessories. This is what Maame Esi had to say about Ah-ccessories, “the whole idea was to get good quality but affordable accessories to the Ghanaian market, I met someone abroad who introduced me to producing gold-plated Ghanaian jewelry.
“We have done this for two years and I must say that the prices are extremely good and the designs are awesome so the patronage is extremely good,” she said.
She had a word of encouragement for young people out there, “dreams can come true. In everything, start small, make your mistakes and use your mistakes as a stepping stone to get to greater heights. Be passionate about your dreams and work hard consistently at it and you will be successful.
Maame Esi was a presenter at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation where she co-presented The Breakfast Show. She was also a broadcast journalist and news anchor at Citi FM.
She was Miss Universe Ghana 2000 and represented Ghana at the Miss Universe pageant in Cyprus. She was a senior banking officer at Zenith Bank who was instrumental in the set up and successful commencement of Platinum Banking, the private banking wing in Zenith Bank Ghana Ltd.
She is an old student of Holy Child School in Cape Coast and the University of Cape Coast. Maame Esi is married with six kids.