Profile
Meet Mavis Adjoa Yeboah Adjei, brain behind leading clothing giant
Gone were the days when people gave little attention to what they wore for public functions.
One’s fashion sense has become a big deal in recent time with the use of social media taking the fashion craze a notch higher.
At some high profile entertainment events with red carpet receptions, one often hear a harmless question like, ‘what are you wearing,’ which in effect means the identity of the creator of one’s dress.
Fashion lovers have been very alert to this, and in the process become very choosy and careful about what they wear out.
This, therefore, requires a vibrant industry, driven by hardworking designers to meet the increasing demands for such designs.
One of such persons making giant strides and amazing designs for the past 14 years is Mavis Adjoa Yeboah Adjei , a visionary CEO and Creative Director of Adjoa Yeboah Clothing.
Mrs Adjei ventured into fashion designing after giving her cloth to a seamstress to work on for a programme, only to be disappointed on the D-day.
“I was frustrated because I didn’t have anything to wear. Through my frustration, I decided to enroll at the Joyce Ababio College of Fashion. After that I launched my business,” she narrated to The Spectator.
“I’ve always believed in nurturing one’s passion. My love for fashion and design led me to pursue formal education at the Joyce Ababio College where I honed the skills necessary to turn my passion into a thriving business,’ she indicated.
The old student of Ghana Secondary School, Koforidua, says she has this desire to provide a unique blend of fashion outfits in order to satisfy the variegated tastes of a myriad of clientele.
Adjoa, as she is affectionately known, was inspired by colours and considered the body type of clients before making an outfit for her clients.
And her biggest aspiration was to be the number one in the industry, providing bespoke clothing solutions to the generality of mankind as they step into the world of work and social network interactions/ programmes with unparalleled confidence and elegance.
Adjoa’s designs have been worn by both national and international celebrities, including Anita Akuffo, Korkui Salormey, Dentaa Amoateng and Rosalyn Felli, just to mention a few.
Despite the busy schedule with work, Adjoa, a mother of four, carefully plans her activities in order to meet the demands of family life as well.
“I prioritise my time, ensuring that I’m fully present in both my professional and personal life. My family’s support has been crucial in helping me manage these responsibilities, allowing me to excel in both areas.”
As a result, she has become a mentor to hundreds of successful fashion designers and is a crucial resource for industrial attachment and internship for students studying fashion, textiles, and garment studies at both public and private universities.
Awards
Adjoa Yeboah Clothing was honoured as the Fashion Brand of the Year at the 2019 Women’s Choice Awards due to her outstanding leadership and stellar delivery of fashion outfits in the year under review.
Furthermore, her clothing line has collaborated with Media General/ TV3’s flagship culture and entertainment show ‘Ghana’s Most Beautiful’ as the fashion hub of choice.
She also collaborated with esteemed national and international personalities and fashion brands such as Vlisco (including the Vlisco Ambassador project) to outdoor many spectacular product collections.
Adjoa worked with Vlisco as a fashion designer in 2014 where she designed and clothed Vlisco’s Ambassadors.
She also curated looks for other Vlisco influencers as well as those for Vlisco Radiance Bridal fair. In 2017, she partnered and unveiled Vlisco Capsule Collection in the flagship store at Accra Mall.
Challenges
Like any entrepreneur, she faces challenges, particularly in balancing creative innovation with the daily management of the business. Earlier on, she saw the need for more training to manage the operational side of the brand, which led her to pursue further studies in management.
Again, she was affected gravely by the high cost of production (ie materials, power, and accessories) which affects the cost of the final product.
Aspirations
Adjoa aims to position her clothing line as a globally recognised brand that continues to empower women and inspire the next generation of designers.
She also want to continue advocating for the empowerment of women and children, using her platform to make a positive impact.
Education
She pursued a management degree at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to enhance her business skills, and also completed the Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership Africa (WELA) Programme at the China Europe International Business School to learn how to position the brand for global success.
Hobbies
Adjoa Yeboah loves listening to a blend of soul, jazz and traditional music, and likes to travel to the countryside to enjoy nature as a source of inspiration. She also loves to read and watch latest trends in the world of fashion.
Born to Mr George Adjei Anobi and Madam Faustina Kyeremaa, she is the first among four siblings – (three girls and a boy) and hails from Berekum in the Bono region.
Advice
Adjoa wants the youth to focus on what they’re passionate about and dedicate time and resources to mastering their skills. Excellence doesn’t happen overnight—it’s a result of consistent effort and learning.
By Linda Abrefi Wadie
He once sold kenkey to pay his school fees, and now wears the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police. DCOP Kofi Sarpong, police officer and award winning gospel musician is charting a journey few could script.
In an interview with The Spectator chronicling his rise, the newly promoted DCOP took us on his journey through the ranks.
Early Life
“I was born in Berekum in the Bono Region, then Brong Ahafo, to Comfort Yeboah, affectionately called Maame Yaa, and the late Chief Inspector Kofi Sarpong,” he said.
His family story is one of resilience. His mother had two children before her husband died in an accident. She later married Kofi Sarpong’s father, a police officer, and had two more, himself and his junior brother. “So we are four, unfortunately one is deceased, just last year, so we are three now.”
School and struggle
He started at Berekum Methodist Primary under the old ‘Sito’ system. In Form Two, he moved to Obuasi to stay with a guardian for his Form Three education, then returned to Berekum for Form Four. He later attended Berekum Senior High School where he studied General Arts and shone as an athlete, a sprinter in the 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay.
After O-Levels, his batch was the last to write the exams, his dream was to become a teacher because of his love for children. But financial hardship forced a detour.
“I decided to help myself by going to buy maize and started preparing kenkey to sell at lorry parks and markets in Berekum,” he recalled.
According to him, the people from Berekum know this story. “I can make all types of kenkey, Fante Kenkey, Ga Komi and others. Don’t be surprised to see Kofi Sarpong Kenkey one day.” The proceeds paid his upkeep.
For this reason, he advised the youth “Don’t see life as a smooth journey but find something prudent to do to help yourself in difficult times.”
After grinding his education to a halt due to financial challenges, he now holds a Degree in Public Administration from GIMPA, a Master’s in International Relations and Diplomacy and Project Management, plus other higher certificates, with more in the offing.
The Police Call
When teaching did not materialise immediately, he moved to stay with his father at Osu, Accra. In 1994, he visited former IGP Nana Owusu-Nsia at Police Headquarters, who told about ongoing police enlistment.
In his head he declined, but outwardly he accepted to try reluctantly. Later, watching TV news and seeing long queues of young people aspiring to join the Police, he was inspired to reconsider.
He went to Berekum for his certificate. Accra enlistment had closed, so he joined the Kumasi exercise. He was selected, passed the exams and went to the Koforidua Police Training School, Galloway. After passing out, he was posted to the Logistics Unit at Police Headquarters.
At Headquarters, a senior officer encouraged young constables to further their education. He took a course in Purchasing and Supply via distance learning from a UK institution. 
Upon completion, the Police administration promoted him from Constable Class One to Chief Inspector, a leap that paved the way for him to enrol at the Police Academy. He graduated as ASP, and the climb to DCOP began.
“The officer corps starts from Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) from the cadet,” he explained. “When you graduate from the Police Academy, you are awarded ASP, and you move to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), that’s when I released album to start my music career professionally.”
From there, he rose to Superintendent of Police (SP), Chief Superintendent, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), and now Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP). Next is Commissioner of Police (COP).
Music found him in Sudan
On peacekeeping duty in Sudan, officers from different nations came together to hold fellowship led by a Nigerian officer. In December that year, with top-ranked officers present, Kofi Sarpong led the service to the admiration of all.
On his return to Ghana, a Colonel, who was a Matron at 37 Military Hospital and a member of the 37 Methodist-Presbyterian Church invited him to their harvest service. He ministered, and as he stepped out of church, a man approached him with an offer to record him. He declined.
Days later, at the office, the man, Ernest Kwesi, who owned Media Excel Production sent an elderly man to pursue him. He still declined. This compelled Ernest Kwesi himself to visit him at the office. “He told me he had seen something in me.”
Just after Ernest Kwesi left,Kofi Sarpong wrote to then Director General/Welfare, Mohammed Alhassan, and Paul Tawiah Quaye the Inspector General of Police (IGP) at the time. “He opened the letter and said he had been waiting all this while because he had seen me perform at police officers’ events.”
He was summoned to the IGP’s office, a call which scared him, however, it was a good news; his request was approved. Against this backdrop, he informed Ernest Kwesi who quickly visited that evening with highlife musician Akwaboah Jnr., who taught him his first song, ‘Me ko nso hw3 mu’, and they went to the studio.
A song earlier recorded in reggae by Zapp Mallet was totally transformed by Nacee, so they released both versions on the album. Nacee, he says, hugely supported promotion, as did Mark Okraku-Mantey.
He also acknowledge Oware Jnr. who also wrote songs for him.
After his maiden album’s success, police leadership congratulated him. He says he is happy to have inspired other officers to write to the Service to pursue other interests.
An autobiography, he reveals, is in the offing.
Family and food
He is married to Mrs Salomey Sarpong with three children, two boys and a girl: Nana Nketiah, Maame Afia Yeboah Sarpong and Papa Kwabena Aseda Sarpong.
His hobbies are watching athletics and being with family. His favourite foods are fufu and konkonte with groundnut soup.
On music, he teased a collaboration with a top Nigerian artiste, promising fans “hot praises” soon.
He concluded by thanking Ghanaians for their support since his promotion, and thanked the Inspector General of Police for his guidance.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
WHEN some of her pupils failed to show up at school, Mary Adotei did not always assume they were absent. Sometimes, she went looking for them.
In the communities where she taught, getting a child into the classroom could require more than preparing lessons. Mrs Adotei remembers occasions when she had to visit the homes of pupils, bathe them, prepare them and bring them to school herself.
“There were times I had to go to the homes of some of the children, bathe them and bring them to school,” she recalled.
It is a memory that captures much of her journey over the years as a teacher, a profession she entered without knowing it would become central to her identity.
Now, after years of working with children and communities, Mrs Adotei is taking lessons from the classroom into a new arena.
She is contesting the position of Women’s Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa (AOB) Constituency in the Central Region, hoping to use her experience working with people to contribute to the welfare of women in the constituency.
But her story begins in the classroom.
After completing her basic and secondary education, Mrs Adotei spent 12 years working as a pupil teacher before she had the opportunity to receive professional training.
In 2006, she entered Fosu College of Education and completed her training in 2011 with a Diploma in Basic Education.
She returned to the classroom and has remained there since, teaching in different communities before moving to her current school, Catholic Boys Basic School in Breman Asikuma, in 2019.
The years have given her a front-row seat to the transformation education can bring.
Some of the children she once taught have grown into professionals, carrying the lessons they learnt in her classroom into hospitals, schools, offices and other workplaces.
Mrs Adotei said she had encountered former pupils who were now doctors, nurses, teachers and even a lawyer.
For a teacher, she said, such moments bring a special kind of satisfaction and reinforce the reason she remains passionate about education.
Her journey, however, has not been without difficult moments.
Teaching in local communities sometimes meant dealing with circumstances that went beyond academic work. Some pupils needed encouragement, personal attention and practical help before they could even settle down to learn.
Those experiences taught her that the challenges confronting people cannot always be solved from a distance. That understanding has followed her into her political activities.
Mrs Adotei has been involved in the NDC for years and previously served as a branch treasurer. She has also supported women in her branch, including assisting some to access medical treatment and providing help to families when the need arose.
She is now making her third attempt at becoming the constituency’s Women’s Organiser.
Her motivation is linked to what she has seen around her.
Mrs Adotei wants women in the constituency to have access to skills and opportunities that can help them become more economically independent.
She believes her years as a teacher have prepared her for the work, too, because the profession has taught her to listen, communicate, understand different circumstances and work patiently with people.
For her, the transition from teacher to political organiser is therefore not a complete departure from the path she has followed.
The classroom taught her to work with individuals. Politics, she hopes, will give her the opportunity to work with a wider group of women.
If elected, Mrs Adotei intends to continue teaching while taking up her political responsibilities. She said she would organise her time to attend meetings and constituency activities without abandoning her duties to her pupils.
Away from school and politics, she is a wife and mother of two sons who are pursuing their degrees at university.
Her message to young girls is shaped by everything she has seen education do for the children she has taught.
For Mrs Adotei, education remains one of the strongest tools available to young people, especially girls seeking to build better futures.
She wants them to stay in school, pursue further education and acquire skills that will prepare them for the future.
“Nowadays, you cannot go forward without education,” she said.
By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
