ENTREPRENEUR PROFILE
From bar attendant to shoe maker: the story of Yaw Barimah
This is an inspiring story of a young man born and bred in a village and couldn’ t advance his education to the Senior High level but was determined to survive. How did he do it? Read his touching story.
Yaw Barimah Agyapong Addo, CEO of Barimah Shoe Industry Ltd, was born in a village called Oboyan, near Abetifi in the Kwahu Ridge, Eastern Region of Ghana, in 1981. He started and completed his basic education at Oboyan L / A. His parents’ marriage did not survive beyond the period Yaw turned three, and so his mother sent him to his grandmother to be taken care of. After sometime of living with his grandmother, he later moved to live with his auntie.
Poverty did not allow Yaw Barimah to continue his education. So after completing the Junior High school at age 17, life became increasingly difficult for him and so with desperation and determination to survive, come what may, he took a bold decision to move to the city.“ I decided to go to Accra to find a job because there was no better job in the village. So I first got a job as an attendant in a drinking bar. I worked there for three years.” But Yaw Barimah was still not satisfied with life as he realized there was no future for him in being a bar attendant. So he embarked on a new journey. An entrepreneur is born
Those who have lived in the rural areas would reckon that one common job most young boys engage in is being a cobbler( popularly known as shoe-shine), and Yaw Barimah was one of them. So as he pondered over what better job to do which could give him a secured future, the‘ shoe-shine business, which was only a handto-mouth trade, became a rediscovered treasure for him.
“ When I was in the village, I used to be a‘ shoe-shine’ boy. Since I already knew some-
58 Business Times Africa | 2016