GHANA MONTH: TW RADIO CELEBRATES FANTI WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE

Born on the 3rd of March 1923 to Samuel and Elizabeth Brookman Amissah, Josephine was an active little girl who played football and always found a myriad of ways to entertain herself.  She grew up in Accra at the Railway Quarters where her father was a Railway Inspector.

She married Francis Isaac Andoh Jr, probationary manager with the then United Africa Company (now Unilever). Francis was a quiet, shy young man and the extremely beautiful and stylish Josephine must have seemed a bit overwhelming to him.  As we all know, the Elmina people being strategic, he asked his father to put together a group of elders that Josephine’s father would find hard to refuse. 

Madam Josephine Andoh resigned from her teaching job after a near-fatal childbirth that almost claimed both her life and her baby’s. What could have broken her instead became the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey.

With only her monthly “chop money” as capital, she began baking pies and tarts from home  reinvesting every cedi while keeping her family well fed. When she moved to Cape Coast with her family, she grew her small kitchen hustle into one of the town’s most beloved bakeries and became one of the first to introduce homemade ice cream there.

She travelled to England for ideas, to Germany for equipment, and by the late 70s, her bakery was among the few fully mechanized in the country. She later purchased the Old Kingsway building on the High Street in Accra and opened the Cool Corner Café.

Even in the hospital after giving birth, when she couldn’t find food, she didn’t complain  she created a business idea: a food trolley serving new mothers who missed their meals. She saw opportunity where others saw problems. She built from almost nothing. A true entrepreneur and an excellent role model for her daughter Franka-Maria Andoh.