A young man, like many others, fell in love with fashion when living in New York for a few years. He was a regular shopper in Soho and on Fifth Avenue, and frequented stores like Express, Club Monaco, and Kenneth Cole. After living this type of fashion life, he found out how clothes were extremely important to him, and loved the feeling of owning a unique sense of style. His name is Hope Okoronkwo, and suddenly, he found himself leaving New York and moving to Africa 7 years ago. Suddenly, he noticed there was a huge gap missing in the fashion market.

“I realized that the fashion industry in the continent was broken. Low-cost production centers 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.” Hope said. However, instead of complaining, he decided to do something about the lack of fashion and decided to create a men’s wear retail business in Accra, Ghana.

Today, Hope has built an online presence, a supply chain, and a logistics partnership for his e-commerce business. He started the business with $15,000 as capital and claims that the biggest challenge has been finding the right foreign and local partners to help him achieve his goal. His advice for all kind of entrepreneurs is that they should give great importance to finding the right partners. No matter if they are foreign or local, the right person can either help you grow immensely or take a strain on your project. “For my business, the partnerships we’ve formed have been invaluable in getting us to this point”. Says Hope. He has already signed an agreement with a sales agent in Nigeria in order to mature partnerships with stores in Lagos so that his garments can be sold more effectively. Hope Okoronkwo is the right example of a true entrepreneur, noticing a gap in the market and trying to fill it with hard work and patience.