“The challenges I faced while growing up as a young girl have made me what I am today, and I’m grateful to God and my mother for being there for me during those trying moments,” these were the words of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unique Floral, Mrs. Akua Afriyie Sarpong-Ayisa, whenWeekend Today caught up with her in her office recently.
Born as Akua Afriyie Sarpong to the late Emmanuel Victor Kwame Sarpong and Juliana Ama Sarpong, all from Mampong in the Ashanti Region, the young Akua Afriyie Sarpong grew up in Accra. According to her, she did not lack anything as her parents were always there for her.
She disclosed that she has eight siblings (herself included)—three (3) men and five (5) women.
Her father would always take her and her other siblings out for shopping during special occasion to buy them toys, toffees among other things. Although she faced some challenges after her parents divorced, she did not allow the unfortunate event to kill her dream in life.
Mrs. Ayisa had her basic education at St John’s Preparatory School in Accra, then to Oda Secondary School where she obtained both her Ordinary and Advanced Level Certificates.
After her Sixth Form education, she went to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to study Estate Management although her dream profession was to become a lawyer.
But as fate may have it, she ended up not even becoming an estate developer but an air hostess. Everything happened when there was ‘aluta’ (to wit demonstration) at the university, which compelled the authorities to close the university down temporarily.
She therefore, took advantage of the closure of the university at that time to take a flight attendant course with Ghana Airways Company Limited (now defunct) in collaboration with the Royal Dutch airlines and never went back to continue her course.
The journey through her career started with the National Lotteries after her secondary education. From there, she got employed at the defunct Bank for Housing where she worked as a cashier for a year before going to the university.
She later joined Ghana Airways as an air hostess, and worked there for 22 years. Over there she rose through the ranks by a dint of hard work to become the head of the In-Flight Section.
During her days with Ghana Airways, she had the opportunity to travel across the world, and that was when she developed keen interest in different types of flowers she came across. She eventually developed a relationship with a number of florists around the world who gave her deeper understanding into the world of plants and the floral business which became the beginning of her journey to floral work.
Having gained a lot of exposure in the floral business, Mrs. Ayisa then started buying exotic flowers for her home from countries like The Netherlands, United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). But she was giving them out as gifts to family and friends until her husband encouraged her to turn the growing passion into a real business.
She took the advice of her husband, and after getting a location officially in 1991, commenced the selling of flowers, which later acquire the business name: “Unique Floral,” to reflect the uniqueness she attached to it.
Over the past two-and-a-half decades, Mrs. Ayisi’ company has specialized in providing extensive range of beautiful flowers and gifts as well as high standard designs and planning not only in Ghana but in neighbouring West African countries.
She has also been able to create timeless and unforgettable ambiance for all kinds of events through floral décor and both fresh and artificial flowers.
She has in stock flowers that have been grown and carefully selected from her 20-acre floral farm in Aburi in the Eastern Region including weekly supply of specially imported flowers from South Africa, Ethiopia and Holland.
After 25 years of being in operation, she has been able to evolve from a very humble beginning to a household name in Ghana and West Africa. She has expanded from retailing of flowers to event planning decoration as well as opening of an ultra-modern flower decorating training school in Accra.
She is married to Air Commodore (Rtd) Philip Ayisa who she met in 1990. They have two children but before they got married she had one child from her previous marriage while her husband also had four, bringing the total number of their children to seven.
She likes doing decoration at her leisure time, and wants to be remembered for the advice and counseling she gives to people, especially the youth, who are eager to make it to the top.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
