About The Authors
Capt. Prince Kofi Amoabeng (Rtd) & George Bentum Essiaw
Capt. Prince Kofi Amoabeng (Rtd)
Prince Kofi Amoabeng, born in 1952, is a retired army Captain, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK, and a celebrated Ghanaian entrepreneur. He caused a paradigm shift in the lending industry in Ghana by founding Unique Trust Financial Services with three employees and grew it into a robust holding company, UT Holdings, with several subsidiaries both locally as well as in Africa and Europe.
After listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of 90 million USD, UT Financial Services Limited bought a foreign-owned bank and rebranded it as UT Bank. Through resolute leadership and ingenuity, UT Bank grew rapidly and transformed the banking landscape with ground-breaking customer-oriented products and innovations.
UT brand became a household name, transforming lives and winning several awards along the way. Prince Amoabeng’s leadership was recognized with several awards and honours including: the Order of the Star of the Volta, Officers’ Division; Marketing Man of The Year (Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, 2006); Most Respected CEO (three consecutive times, 2008, 2010, 2012); Johnnie Walker Giant (global “Walk With Giants’ campaign, 2012); profiled in Moky Makura’s book, “Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs”.
Unfortunately, UT Bank’s licence was revoked in 2017 in what the Bank of Ghana referred to as the “Banking Sector Clean-up Exercise”. However, the celebrated CEO remains active in business and social circles, and is known for his philanthropic work.
The reverses that he has suffered and survived in his career have strengthened his unwavering belief that Ghana in particular and Africa in general, needs entrepreneurs, be it corporate or social, who can rewrite the African narrative through ingenuity anchored on a resolute and honest leadership.
George Bentum Essiaw
George studied Physics, Chemistry and Elective Mathematics at Mfanstipim School, Cape Coast. Prior to attending the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), he wrote and published several short stories in The Mirror, Weekend Chronicle, The Spectator, et cetera.
He studied Public Relations/Advertising at GIJ and served as the Editor in Chief of the GIJ Journal (the official newspaper and mouthpiece for students’).
George also studied Film Directing at the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI), Accra. His final year screenplay, “I Want to Know”, won the best screenplay for the Film Directing class of the 2004/5 year-group.
Thereafter, he worked as the Creative Director/Assistant Director at Deltrac Media, producers of the hit television drama series Suncity. He wrote, produced and/or directed several episodes of the Suncity show.
He moved on to Origin 8 (later Origin 8 Saatchi & Saatchi) where he produced and directed several high-profile television commercials, corporate videos, radio commercials et cetera, all in the capacity of Broadcast Production Executive. Origin 8 provided him with the opportunity to work on some of the biggest brands both local and multinationals operating in Ghana. He also served as the Concept Development Manager at Ad Vantage Productions, a subsidiary of Lowe Lintas, one of Ghana’s oldest and biggest advertising agencies.
George was one of three founding members of Multi TV, the first Free To Air, satellite, multiple channel television station in Ghana. As a Channel Manager, he was instrumental in developing the look and feel of the then ten channels on Multi TV. He also managed the movie channels Joy TV and Cine Afrique as well as the music/lifestyle channel – Hitz TV. He helped develop and supervise the production of several live TV shows including the popular news and current affairs show, PM Express.
George has since been writing, producing and directing television commercials and corporate videos for various leading advertising agencies as a consultant. He has also written several concepts and screenplays for feature films, short stories and documentaries which are yet to be produced.
Pior to co-authoring this book, he spent about two years documenting the yet to be released video documentary on the life and works of Ghana’s leading playwright, James Ebo Whyte (Uncle Ebo) of Roverman Productions. This is George’s first book.