Thanks to a whirlwind romance with a dashing young Ghanaian man, Philippa Pepera, who was visiting Ghana for work, changed her plans of going back home to Canada. Instead, she stayed and married him.
Born to an English mother and a Ghanaian father, Philippa moved with her parents from Ghana when she was a child. After a brief period in England, the family moved to Canada. And it was not until she was 24 that Philippa was to return to Ghana, then armed with a degree in health studies from Ontario’s University of Waterloo, which she intended to put into practice.
A job with the district health management team at St Patrick’s Mission Hospital in Offinso had her going from village to village educating the public on healthcare. This provided Philippa with a perfect opportunity to test the thesis she’d written on primary healthcare, using Ghana’s healthcare model as a case study. She’d chosen to focus on Ghana because she wanted to connect with her father’s homeland while fulfilling her dream to work in a developing country.
Philippa’s original plan was to stay in Ghana for a couple of years and then pursue a degree in public health or medicine in Canada.
Pipa’s conception
But after marrying her husband Paul, Philippa became a stay-at-home mum to her four children. However, in 1996 after her children started school, Philippa became bored and restless staying at home. Just before a trip to Canada that year, she told Paul that she would not return to Ghana if she didn’t have work to do. She told him: “I want to build a private gym because I know there is a market for it.”
Paul, not wanting to enter into a long distance relationship with his wife, agreed to support her and was one of the initial investors in Pippa’s Health Centre Limited (popularly known as “Pippa’s”). However, Paul’s investment came with a caveat. She explains he insisted that “everything would remain the same at home” and that she would continue to look after the children herself, doing the school run, making meals and putting them to bed. And she recalls: “I did that. Never did they have to put themselves to bed, never did they have to go to school with a nanny. For years, I shuttled between the gym and home to ensure everything remained the same at home.”
Although at the time there were only a handful of gyms in Accra, it was an obvious business for Philippa. And she has poured her heart into creating perhaps Accra’s finest fitness centre. Unlike the cold sterile feel that many gyms have, Pippa’s feels almost like an upmarket home with all the rich wood panelled walls and floors. It is warm and cosy and an oasis from the busy din of Accra. Purpose built and situated in the quiet residential area of Ringway Estates, Pippa’s boasts two studios, cardio rooms, a waiting room, a beauty parlour, a fitness assessment centre, offices and a smoothie bar. There is a dizzying array of programmes and classes that run for 88 hours a week (starting at 5.30 a.m.) and the personal trainer programme provides remarkable flexibility for anyone irrespective of their schedules.
Philippa caught the fitness bug as an undergraduate. To help finance her degree, she’d worked as a fitness instructor on campus, after successfully completing the Ontario Fitness Leadership Course. In that role, she was responsible for co-ordinating fitness education for about 1,600 students.
While that experience proved helpful in setting up Pippa’s, she tells me that “the best experience for this business was from the years she’d spent running and organising a house with four little people.” That, in addition to listening and talking to Paul about his business.
But it was not an easy start. The banks she approached had no interest. When she attended the meetings with Paul, the banks seemed more interested in his business. In fact, one bank manager asked her: ‘Well, if building a gym is such a good idea, why hasn’t anyone done it yet?’
When I arrived to interview her at the gym, Philippa was busy taking a group of two and three-year olds through a fitness and play routine called Tumble Tots. It introduces the little ones to group play activities and teaches them social interaction skills at an early age. The children were having so much fun playing and working out at the same time.
Unique selling proposition
In addition to taking Tumble Tots, she participates in at least one fitness class a day and her trademark infectious smile often greets clients at the reception. Such a hands-on approach, together with consistently re-investing in equipment and staff development, and a voluntary adherence to the highest international standards are the key reasons why Pippa’s is the gym of choice for Accra’s discerning elite.
As she puts it: “We run to an international standard although there is no standard or authority for the fitness industry in Ghana. Anybody can have good equipment, but it’s about keeping the standards, the hygiene, making sure things are clean. I’m confident that you can go into our bathrooms, into any toilet and it will be clean. I’m confident that you will have water and power 24/7.
Besides our club, I am not sure how many gyms in Ghana have their staff tested for Hepatitis B, which is a big problem in Ghana. And as Hepatitis B is transferred through sweat, one of the places to pick it up will be a gym.”
Food for thought next time you go near a gym!