Featuring Akosua Adoma
In this episode, host Enoch "Robot Boy" Appiah Jr. is joined by Akosua Adoma of @AkwaabaApp , a digital marketer dedicated to community-driven growth and placing purpose at the heart of marketing.
[0:00] Short-form videos that come in the form of user-generated content, so you get to have people that have used a particular business or serve it in a particular business.
[0:11] And then they tell their story of how they've benefited from that business and all that. From Bildx Studios, this is the Colours of Social Media podcast, the podcast for people who believe in digital marketing.
[0:25] Here's your host, Enoch RobotBoy Appiah Jr. Today, I'm joined by Akosua Adoma, a digital marketer whose passion for community driving growth has transformed fintech, platforms, and young lives.
[0:39] From launching tools like Multitope for Me, which is a peer-to-peer fan-in breakthrough, giving over 10,000 unbanked people access to assets, to amplifying local Ghanaian businesses through a proper app. Akosua has consistently put purpose at the heart of marketing.
[0:58] Now, through Belle Meis, she has helped over 2,000 young women gain leadership and career confidence. So in this episode, you will hear how she crafts campaigns that go beyond hype. How she uses storytelling to build authentic connections, empower underserved communities, and fuel economic inclusion in emerging markets.
[1:24] So stay tuned as we unpack digital marketing for impact, building brands that drive social change. And by the end of this episode, you'll be inspired by actionable strategies, real-world case studies, and a vision where purpose and profit work hand in hand. If you are inspired, follow Colours of Social Media on Spotify, and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up-to-date with future episodes.
[1:56] Now let's get into the conversation. Thank you for coming in Akosua. Thank you so much for having me in there. I got it right. Okay, so I think we can start now.
[2:05] Absolutely. So Akosua looking at your bio, it reflects a dynamic journey. Yeah, the first thing that I got was you helped build a fintech tool. That is one. You are empowering ladies, young girls with bell mimes, right? Can you walk me through what inspired you to go on this journey?
[2:30] Once again, thank you for having me and thank you viewers for watching and for listening. So to answer your question about bell mimes, right? I've always been around women that are very strong, right? And very focused on their goal. You know, race in a house by my mom, I've had like my sisters and in myself, not once have I seen, I've seen my mom like go through a lot of trials and tribulations, right? A lot of like challenges in life. And if not that I'm older now, some of them I wouldn't have ever known, but some of them actually come to light as I'm older than I'm like a while. It's when I was like able to walk through all of those things.
[3:23] So as a young girl growing up, I've always not digged with the girls being a victim, like the victim who mindsets, right? I've always felt like as a girl, things are not going to be hard for you. Like on the silver parts are just like that with everything. Like you have to like keep pushing and then you have to like make sure that you have the goal to win or the goal to like be on top wherever you are. But it starts with the mind, right? So it's the governments and the amazing NGO people do whatever that they have to do, like making sure that there are policies, that support girls, there are initiatives or projects that try to push the empowerment of girls agenda, right? But then again, when it comes to the mind, who's working on the mind?
[4:21] So me being creative and feeling just creative while I was thinking about all this, I came up with a name like Belle Minds. So Belle just means beautiful, right? So it was like, oh, I'd love to do like this initiative about building a mindset of young girls, so beautiful minds, like girls developing a beautiful mind of like, they being able to do the things that they set up their minds to do. And I was like, let me just purify it. And so I pushed it and I'm like, I know that Belle needs beautiful. So I went up with that with Belle Minds. So basically, the project about Belle Minds, I've always been empowering girls from the mind, them knowing that when you go out there, you are not conquered by fear, but you know that, okay, I can do this and I can do it, I can do well, I don't mind. And currently, if I'm not mistaken, you've empowered over 2000 young. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It's been such an amazing journey.
[5:30] So we've had our Belle Minds conference, we've had, we have our social media platform, we've had also our podcast, right? So that's why I'm saying that it's not easy being the guest.
[5:46] Yeah, I only think to add it for sure. Yeah, it's not easy being the guest at all. So yeah, I told you that it's not my guest now. Who does you guys really do? I didn't understand. All right. So yeah, basically, that's about sleep dancing.
[6:02] So staying on Belle Minds though, with this initiative, what story has stood out since you? Okay. So I've had opportunity to listen to stories of young girls from like diverse backgrounds and diverse places, one of like my most amazing friends by the name, Jennifer. I've seen Jennifer being able to build an organization that is so passionate about sustainability, right? And when I see her do the things that she do, I admire her so much, because her field would not necessarily be that field that will say that is the normal female dominated routes, right? Her field will be more of like the male dominated space. And she going there and then she excelling in backstage has always been something that I look forward to. And I'm listening to her story and I'm like, okay, I'm also trying my best for just many girls. Her story is empowering me to do what I'm doing. So yeah, exactly. That's one life story that absolutely I have admired so much.
[7:32] What's Moji to pay for me? It's a fintech company that helps with alternative financing, right? So when you're here in our part of Africa, and you are going to go for like loans and here and etc, right? We realized that we are using like the foreign standards, right, to be able to qualify people to get loans or not loans.
[8:02] Not that it's wrong. I know that every financial company obviously wants like what's best for them. But then in our parts of the world, we have a lot of people in the informal sector, right? And these people, these people may not necessarily have like the resources to qualify them to get the loans that they need from the bank. So that's where once it comes in and then we created like an alternative financing option like the pay for me option. We also have like the pay small small option where we are targeting the informal sector especially to be able to come in and then get the financial assistance. Your target for the FCC informal sector, right?
[8:52] Yeah, it's wildly informal sector. But we do get young people like young people that do not have like the the the means that yes, yeah, the credibility for loans.
[9:11] For loans of course. Because if you are going for loans from the bank, you will ask of you your property document. What property do you have? Yeah, it's a collateral. Interesting things.
[9:23] So yeah, so the informal sector. My question here is when the young guys, I sort of know the answer to this. I want to ask how you were able to use digital marketing to get the on bank to use Matito. Okay, so most of our what we used to do or what we did well with Matito was that we have like the two main clients target audience that we have.
[9:55] So the young people you can directly get them through like social media. But when it comes to the informal sector, what we did was not target the individual until that's like targets organizations that have them. So we have like organizations that look after diamonds naked, right? So you're not targeting the individual payment makers, you're targeting the organization as a whole, and then we're able to reach the individual people.
[10:27] So we market our soul then again through various forms of like digital marketing, we get to the ears of these these organizations and then they're able to now reach out to their members and be like, oh, we think this is an amazing thing that. Again, not only are you helping young girls with the career, you're also helping small businesses. And that is the Akwaba app. Yes, yes. Akwaba app, I'm currently with Akwaba app. Well, this was such an amazing ride, right? So I moved off from my teacher and I'm currently with Akwaba app. And it's been so amazing. Introducing Akwaba app, you're essential travel companion for Africa, whether you're a local or a traveler. Akwaba connects you to the best hidden gems in town. It's a travel tech company. So it's even beyond travel tech. It's also about lifestyle. Yeah. And what we do is that we help to connect local businesses here in Ghana. And we make sure those businesses are verified. When I say verified, we make sure that those as alleged business services are excellent. And I mean, if you don't have that level of excellence, right, we make sure that we provide guidance, right, in order to make sure that how can you improve your customer service, et cetera.
[12:06] And in doing this, all we do is to connect these businesses to travelers that are coming to Ghana. Most of the challenges of most travelers or biosporens coming to Ghana is that it's not about them finding the services that you need. It's about them finding a trusted services that they can actually use when they are in the particular service. And someone is coming to Ghana and you're spending so many hours like online, looking for business. I can do this.
[12:34] A lot of things right now. Exactly. Exactly. And at the end of that day, you may still end up getting right. So that is where Acaba app comes in. And we realized that most of this small business that are doing amazing things, you don't even have that marketing bandwidth. So like put them in front of like the eyes of the diaspora. Yeah, that would want to utilize the asset. So we speak the story of these businesses throughout social media through like diversity to marketing, email marketing, influence on marketing, et cetera. And then they get into like the years of the.
[13:15] Well, the diaspora. Exactly, diasporans, experts coming to Ghana. And even though that has been like a main target group, like the diasporans and like experts coming to Ghana, you realize that people, even in Ghana, also get to benefit from using the service. Like I said earlier, right, from and sometimes like getting things that I or services, such as services, I don't even know where to start. Right. But then realize that if somebody was in my shoes, they can also get the exact cover up. And then now these businesses that may not necessarily be out there is now like in front of me. Yeah. Yeah. So that has been such an amazing thing. Seeing businesses get impacted from what my team and I are doing. Yeah. You mentioned a couple of digital strategies on how to get the diasporans. Yeah. Which of them, if you are to let's say rate them, which of them work best to get the diasporans? Because the reason I'm asking you this is that that it is in by its community. Right. That's it is about has been like, I feel like if I've used any word more in the past three, one has been that it is above. Yes. Yeah. So how are you going to capitalize on this with digital markets and strategies? I think one, one tool that has been tried and tested and found to really work has been like short form videos.
[14:48] I know it's so common now that we don't, we don't see that. So it's like, we don't see the impact of it. Like, it's like, oh, yeah, it'll be the sensors are doing this and they're doing it.
[15:01] But if you do it and you do it well, it actually does work. So short form videos that comes in the form of like user generated content. So you get to have people that has used a particular business and then they tell their story of like how they've benefited from that business and all that.
[15:22] So I think one tool that personally I've used and I know it works has been like using the power of like using short form videos, whether user generated or influenced that.
[15:36] Yeah. US storytelling and people attention. How can, I mean, how does storytelling impact business access? Yeah. So I think for a very long time, businesses have been good with advertising. Yeah. So just writing. Yes. Yeah. I see your face. Like they just, they just put a couple of things together and then they do their nice videos and then it's there.
[16:07] But the power of storytelling, what I've realized is that you make the people understand why you are doing what you are doing and make them understand why you're doing what you're doing.
[16:18] And then also the impact that you seek to create, right? And also encouraging conversations within the sector that you are. So one, one, one strategy of storytelling that we use then Aqaba App was using our podcast channel. Hi, everyone. My name is Akosia Adomwa and I'm so excited to be back on your screens. You're welcome to Aqaba App podcast today. We're using our podcast channel. We've been able to gather a lot of conversations around the diaspora stay in Ghana, the diaspora experiencing Ghana, the influencer, trends in Ghana and all of those things. And these things are the pinpoints of our Kageku, right? So that asking like the power of storytelling and reviews, right? Telling the stories of the people that are within the Aqaba App.
[17:19] That's the target today. Exactly. That the audience who use us. So you use storytelling to address the pain point. Exactly. An advertiser will just address the pain point without telling a story by you guys. You tell the story. We are not telling our own story.
[17:37] Just telling you people that come and see your own story, right? So we are giving you the platform to come in, say like what experience have you had as a diaspora in the evening Ghana, right? So you say all of these things and at the end of the day, we as a platform are also using our technology to address most of the things that you've had for most of the things that you've encountered. And aside that, people are really having amazing time here in Ghana.
[18:06] So that is also a way to advertise Ghana to people. So even though we are addressing the issues of people that come to Ghana, right? We are also making sure that we are advertising Ghana even to the wider audience to let you know that Ghana is really chill.
[18:25] Can you tell me a campaign, whether Motito or Aqaba, why storytelling, this strategy that you guys are using sort of changed the outcome of the campaign? I would, I'm with Aqaba Apps.
[18:42] Yes. I mean, I want to build from your experience. I'm with Aqaba Apps also. I think you have a story that is related to Aqaba Apps. So when we're starting in Ghana, right? I don't know any organization that has done what we've done yet, right? I don't know. So we started with Aqaba App reward system, right? So we encourage people to use the feature to Aqaba App and then we get businesses in Aqaba App to reward them. So what we started with, all we did was that most of those businesses, people didn't even know them, right? People didn't know most of these businesses anyway. But like we've said, most of the businesses are better to know that their services are true.
[19:43] So what we did was we run a campaign and then we tell the story of these businesses. All those businesses owned by Ghana and there's a version of the business that's what they've been doing. So we go into their business, we take the use of the space that they have there. It doesn't have to be flashy or bougie. There's the authenticity of the service that you are rendering.
[20:05] And then at the end of the day, we say that, you know what, getting to Aqaba App, use the features, you get to gather your points and then you get to receive your reward from this business.
[20:16] At the end of the day, right, we have mentioned the name of your business to like the, we have like about 12k followers. So we mentioned the name of your business to all our followers. At the end of the day, they're like, oh, if I did this, I'm good to get this reward from this particular business.
[20:32] And now at the end of the day, the name of your business is bringing in the minds of the followers. Even if the person doesn't get the reward, they know the name of your business that they could have got a reward from or like they could have got something from, and your name is there. And when they're passing by, it would be like, ah, this is the name of the business that Aqaba App was talking about. So it wasn't like there's any one of the business go there, you know, it's a little bit gamified, right, to make it fun and also to like stretch how long it can stay in the minds of people.
[21:09] Trusting, smart. Yeah, he really is. Yeah, he's smart, he's smart. Yeah, thank you. You know, the element of pain. I'm saying it with like, amazing, even best, trust me. I want to ask, in marketing rights, what are some of the challenges that you face? The challenge is that, you know, when you get a particular business, right, so let's say a restaurant, and you've made all this noise, so maybe probably I have set up the newsletter for the week, right, and I put your business in, and I'm like, oh, guys, go to Aqaba App, go check out this particular network. Maybe in this particular week, my focus was really on this particular business. On social media, I'm running, I'm running provos there with your business as the center, and now people are getting interested, and at the end of the day, it's either the business, I think they have any social media presence, right, or at the end of the day, they have a social media presence. But no one is man in it. But nobody's man in it.
[22:17] So what happens is that some of these people may even go on your social media and even send you, like, D&D would not be responded to the last time you posted on 2019.
[22:31] The last time you posted to 2019, and you're trying to speak to the business and be like, this is the time for you to actually reaffirm yourself. But you can't blame them so much, because most of the small businesses then again, do not have like a lot of manpower.
[22:47] So the business will actually do anything, and at the end of the day, social media is like at the back some of his mind, he's loving to divide himself in finance head, logistics head, and then now social. Exactly. So those are like the challenges that you get to have because everything now, you know, right now, marketing is very synonymous to digital marketing. When you say what are the trends in marketing, it's almost like what are the trends in digital marketing. So all the noise I'm going to make for your business is going to be through social, like social, one through one social platform will be added all the noise. So for you to make good use of the noise I'm making for you, you also have to be pulling your way through your personal platform. How can digital tools level the place for a marginalized community? I'm looking at your girls. Okay, so one thing that I have been saying a lot is that you cannot be like a young girl or like a boy, right? So you can't be a young person and be okay with the fact that you can't use certain digital tools. You know, when I'm talking to like a young person, right? Like our mothers, they can try, but maybe a young guy, you shouldn't try, you should don't. Exactly. You don't really have a lot of excuses and be okay with it. No, my issue is you're very okay. Okay, yeah. I hope your audience can speak to you, but they can't be like, I'm the minister anymore. And you are okay. Okay with it.
[24:46] Look, if I buy data, I'm not going to do adverts for myself because I've been stressing. Why is this an experience? I just don't understand. But if I buy data, I promise you that 50% of my data goes to YouTube. Because day in, day out, you learn and the next week has changed. Like you learn, like sometimes I go to like, I go into meta, right? Maybe I'm setting up one ad or the other. And I'm like, I came here last week wasn't like this. What changed, right? Because things are changing and things are changing very, very fast. So what you have to do is that as an individual, you should learn certain basic skills, right? If you learn certain basic skills, you are no longer disadvantaged.
[25:38] That's what I said, because that is what everybody is using. And now, globalization has been even, it's even, it's sort of, it's closing. It's closing in exactly like there's, there's, there's not really much advantage someone in, maybe, maybe there are some advantages, but there's not really much advantage as somebody in, in, in different parts of the world would have over you. It is really setting tools and really use it more, right? So at the end of the day, I'll say that for you to, to get out of the, like I started from that, I really do not want to keep encouraging this victim who's mindset.
[26:22] So for you to get out of that bubble, or I'm like this, because this has been done to me and I've not been able to benefit from it. You have to post that new land and you have to post that really new moment, right? And you have to post that on the skills that you have. And then you be put on, even if not the same level with other people. Very much. What do you think digital marketing for? Let's say social media, social impact, like bell minds, really agent in, especially in Africa. At a point in my life, I, I was, I wasn't well, if I was in a house for a very long time, and I would see like, I would see people go up and about, and I'll be, I'll be with my phone. At that point in time, what really helped me, even still strengthen my mind whilst I was in Dasti was the content I was consuming. Yeah.
[27:26] There were point things about women doing amazing things. And I knew that if I get up from here, and I get out of this place, these are the kind of women I'm looking at. See, and this are the kind of people I want to be like, feel myself, see this person reaching this kind of impact. Right? That is an important of four minds. I once when a girl somewhere no matter where they are in their life, these are the content that we put out there in their life. I see a lot of women doing amazing things. And then I'm going to build myself to get into Dasti's, be able to speak to thousands of people, be able to create impact in the, in my community, in church, in high school, wherever that I find myself. That is why I think that platforms like Dolman to attack women in parliament. Right now, I'm just thinking, how do you combine your nine to five with Dolman? Okay, so I'm very frank. It's obviously not easy, because sometimes like, it shouldn't be. Yeah. And I absolutely love what I do as my nine to five absolutely not very systemic and anything that brings like visible impact, I'm very absolutely king. But fortunately, we have the power of AI. We have the power of AI, like the world is so fast paced. Right now, like there's no excuse as to why you come to something really fast. Right. The last time I was having a conversation with my mom, right? Okay.
[29:13] Wow. Like you are growing up and then you are in your building. Right. And maybe daddy don't go to the farm. Maybe there's nobody now who you didn't have access to electricity. The radio of your sleep belonged to your daddy touched it to you with trouble. Yeah. So you're in a house and alone. Like what do you do? Do you just sit down and just stare in there? It's like, yeah, you sit down and we pass it by you greet them. Oh my god. That would be so chill. But right now, in the space that we are, we are competing not just with our immediate environment. We are competing on a global scale. Right. So you can't see that I can't use AI because things have to be done. Things have to be done fast. And so, um, using tools like AI makes mind show. Even though it may look a lot, it takes, it serves as an assessment. Yeah. You have your own assistant. I have my own assistant. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I, I do. How do you plan on evolving bell minds? I want bell minds to become a place where, um, become a platform where people can build themselves even in the space that they are in. So you could be a medical doctor, but how can you be, uh, um, I don't seriously, like an absentee for the club. Okay. You know, like, you know, when people, people do their job, like, let's say you are a seamstress and you're still using the technology of like yesterday years, right? So when there are new technology that you have, like, in quotes, traditional, exactly. You have to like fun, starting learning and building yourself, especially by applying to tech tools, you're doing, I want bell minds to be that space where no matter where you find yourself, you can learn and especially learn to apply the latest tech strength. I love that. I love that. Hair dressing. I'm sure like there are like very new new technology then in the, in the hairdressing space, but you don't know how, who tells them, who brings down that information for them to hear that. Oh, guess what?
[31:58] You know, they are washing your hair bar right now. Maybe there's like, there's this time out where you can use it. Exactly. There's this time when they can use that can change the temperature of the water. Exactly. To fit the person uses the person's bio data.
[32:21] So absolutely. That is, that is where I was. Yeah. Great. All the best. All the best. Thank you so much. Thank you. We didn't money to, so yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That one, whichever means that they come through and it's going to be useful for having. Also, if, if you are to leave a listener of the works, which one last one take away, what would that be? Okay. Um, where do I start from? I have a very strong belief system, right? Elevation system. And it's centered in my background as a question. Yeah.
[33:10] Yeah. So that is how I'm going to start your life when you're in your mind. So if there's one particular thing that I would love to leave us with is that guide your, your mind and guide your heart and make sure that you're very intense while in the things that you feed your mind. Because the things that you feed your mind are particularly the things that get, um, see setting you on those are the things that influence what you see at the end of the day. And those are the things that are also like who I had to influence the choices that you make. I'm in a digital marketing space. So I know the lengths that people both need to create funding because at the end of the day, the goal of the content you're creating is not necessarily about the impact of things. And it gives is about like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[34:07] That's right. So people do not care what it puts in the outside so long as it gets them the level of engagement that they want. They can put out on verified information. So far as it would it would mess up. Yeah. It would mess up with, uh, with the emotions of people for people to engage in. So constantly, please, and please be very, very, very careful. I ended up in like, just recently, right? I ended up in this, um, social media rabbit hole somewhere. And I woke up. So I'm reading next day because of what I had seen and all of those things. They could be true or didn't know because right. The most important thing that I do my paths soon to verify that information I'm getting is actually true. Before you act on it, make sure that information you are getting it's very true. The source is credible so that you do not, you do not see yourself with things that don't sound just say in garbage. Yeah.
[35:13] Yeah. Gabbages in garbage. So with, with contents coming, just imagine what your life would be. Then it would be like a lot of garbage out. So please let be, let's be very, very intentional about what we call.
[35:29] Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.