With graduation approaching, Nana Kwadwo Osei Nyarko ’26 is preparing to give full attention to 1NRI, a venture he has been building alongside his degree at Ashesi University.
Last year, Nyarko, a Management Information Systems major, generated more than GHS 250,000 in revenue through 1NRI, his faith-based apparel brand. He believes the business can go much further.
“I trust that this year, we’ll do over a million cedis in revenue,” he says. “I know if I have more time to pay attention to this, I’ll crack that code.”
As a teenager, Nyarko was drawn to streetwear brands that sold identity as much as product. He wanted to create something with that same appeal in the Christian space, but what he saw on the market felt uninspired.
“I didn’t see anything that was to my taste,” he says.
That early instinct became 1NRI — a brand that blends streetwear aesthetics with expressions of Christian faith. Produced in Accra and run from Ashesi, it has grown beyond campus to reach customers across Ghana and in the UK and the US.
Over time, 1NRI became harder to treat as a side project. Demand grew. The business expanded. And the questions became more serious.
“As the years have gone by, I see myself more as a full-time founder and a part-time student,” Nyarko says. “Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but if your idea is really powerful and strong, why are you part-timing it?”
As part of the first cohort of the Ashesi Center for Entrepreneurship’s Student Incubator, Nyarko has had to look beyond the product and think more rigorously about how 1NRI works as a business.
Working with his coach, Clara Pinkrah-Sam, Founder and Creative Director of Clatural, he has been pushed to think more intentionally about pricing, production, and the infrastructure required to grow a fashion brand sustainably. That shift has sharpened the questions he is asking: what production at scale could look like, how much control the business needs, and what systems must sit underneath the brand if growth is to last.
“Clara has definitely challenged me to think in a more granular way,” Nyarko shared. “I’m thinking more about manufacturing and vertical integration and infrastructure because I struggle with infrastructure. And I’m sure other clothing brands do as well.”
Nyarko’s ambition for the next phase of 1NRI is clear: to build a fashion business with the infrastructure to support real scale. “Whatever I build in the fashion space has to get to Zara level,” he says. “Huge scale. Huge infrastructure.”
Like many ventures, 1NRI’s growth has come with pressure, from financial losses to long hours and difficult decisions that do not show up in revenue figures. His time at Ashesi has shaped that journey in many practical ways and through the Student Incubator.
What started as a student side project is now operating like something more serious: a venture with real demand, a founder with scale on his mind, and a business being tested more deliberately for growth.
