06/07/2026
A question I often get about my business name is "what does Akiba mean?" In Swahili "Akiba" means "savings or reserves" but that wasn't what I had in mind when I chose the name for my business.
Like proud parents choosing a name for their new baby, I wanted to give my new business a name with significant meaning, a name that embodied my Ghanaian heritage.
I decided to pay homage to my late parents, with a name that had a bit of me and a bit of them, so I took a piece of paper, wrote down my name (Aba), my fathers name (Kofi) and my mother's name (Aku) and began to rearrange letters from our names.
After several permutations and combinations "Akiba" emerged. That was it. Akiba - a combination of selected letters from my name and my parents' names. I liked the way it sounded and so it was settled.
I named my business "Akiba Fragrance and Wellness Studio".
Unlike proud Ghanaian parents who traditionally present their precious new baby to the world and reveal said baby's name during a joyous ceremony called an "outdooring", Akiba's entry onto the world stage was quiet - there was no fanfare, no big launch.
Akiba's entry was marked by filling and filing of business registration forms in Ghana, and later in the US.
Then followed the hard work of building the business and building the brand "Akiba", a process which is on-going to this day, more than a decade later.
Despite our quiet entry onto the business scene, we have quite an interesting story to tell - Akiba was born as a fragrance and wellness brand, specializing in scented body and home care products.
Today we have transitioned our body care range to 100% fragrance-free body care for sensitive skin and sensitive noses.
What happened? Why did we make this change?
Find the answer in our latest interview feature in IKONIK Magazine https://ikonikpress.com/fragrance-free-skincare-for-sensitive-skin-a-conversation-with-aba-williams-founder-of-akiba-care/
