The Chief Operating Officer for mPharma, Sophia Baah was hosted on Y107.9 FM’s highly rated ‘Y Leaderboard Series’, a platform where the league of influential and successful people across various industries shares insights and their journey through life to rising to the apex.
As part of celebrating and recognising women in the Ghanaian setting, Sophia Baah brought to life the desire for women to challenge themselves for higher roles in society and break barriers to fulfill their dreams.
Having spent most of her early days in the heart of England, Sophia disclosed that the England of today is different from that of past years with regards to discrimination people of colour had to go through. For that, her strong mother had always been her inspiration and prioritised education and all other things about becoming better.
“I grew up in London with a very strong mother who is very particular about education. The England that I know is very different from the England of today. We had one ‘Black person’ on TV who was Trevor McDonalds and every time he came on, we were so excited because we saw somebody who looks like us. So, in that context my mother was very much keen about education and being the best, you can be. Once you’ve done everything else, the blame becomes colour and that is the environment I grew up in. I’ve had so many people talk about role models and for me it is always my mother. I don’t have to look further than my mom because of what she was able to do and accomplish. She was about getting the education and kind of exposure we need and if it was about any school trip, I was in there. So that was the environment we had to grow up in”, she shared.
Sophia Baah also indicated that she was very athletic during her young age as she took part in several sport activities including basketball, netball and other track and field activities. “These interesting sports have lived with me my whole life and I work out every morning. I exercise from time to time to be in shape and I’m happy they continue to live with me,” she said.
Having been in so many high positions and having played a huge role for Ghana Airport Company Limited’s $400 million syndicated loan facility for the development of the new international terminal, she revealed the driving motivation for joining mPharma Company. Since her major concern for impact was geared toward the improvement in the educational and health sectors in Africa, she was driven to align with mPharma’s vision of making healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone on the continent after a conversation with Gregory Rockson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of mPharma.
“At the time, it was really about making health affordable and accessible in Africa. When I moved to Ghana, my biggest areas of concern were around education and healthcare.”
According to her, her role as COO doesn’t appear dreary to her, but only excites her to do better and fulfill the vision.
“I don’t think my role is tedious, it has been interesting since I joined and with what Greg is trying to achieve. So seeing somebody who was actually trying to break the barriers and change the dynamics around healthcare provision was really exciting for me. So my day to day role is to really make sure that we’re executing and implementing that vision through the various ways”, she added.
Recounting how she celebrated International Women’s Day, she revealed that her entire day was dedicated to creating awareness on Cervical Cancer and encourage women both in Ghana and across the African continent to go out for testing.
“So during the International Women’s Day celebration, what we did as mPharma, we’re really focused on good health for Africa and one of the initiatives we’ve been driving through the latter part of last year is the ‘10,000 Women Campaign’, where we’re really trying to create awareness and encourage women to get screened and tested for Cervical cancer. So yesterday, the majority of my day was spent launching our products for testing.”
Sophia Baah revealed that some testing equipment were launched in the process to facilitate testing in laboratories. She stated that women in Ghana and Nigeria have been tested, with 6,000 testing already done in Ghana and 4,000 in Nigeria.
The COO of mPharma further advised women to “do the best job wherever they find themselves and they will be elevated” as she reiterated that for her, success is not about sacrifices but hard work and a planned life.
