Prince Kofi Amoabeng

Prince Kofi Amoabeng is the Chief Executive Officer of UT Bank and the President of UT Holdings. He is a retired military officer (Captain) and an investment consultant. He graduated from the premier Business School in Ghana- University of Ghana Business School with a B.Sc Admin (Accounting). He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA-UK) and a member of Chartered Accountants CA (GH).

Early Life

Prince Kofi Amoabeng was born at Bososo 22nd February 1952 in the Eastern Region of Ghana. He traces his ethnic roots to his matrilineal hometown of Kukurantumi, also in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Education

He attended Adisadel College in Cape Coast after passing his Common Entrance examination at Penworth Preparatory School, a boarding institution for boys in Accra, in 1964, and completed his sixth form at St. Peter’s Secondary School at Akwatia.

He attended the University of Ghana, Legon, where he obtained a 2nd class upper in Administration with an Accounting major. Kofi entered the Military Academy in Accra in April 1975, and was commissioned as a Lieutenant by November.

While in the army, Kofi won a scholarship from the Ministry of Defence to study the Royal Army Pay Corps course in Cost and Management Accountancy in Winchester, UK. He passed out after a year and a half and returned home. Mr. Amoabeng left the army in May 1982 on principle. This was six months after the return of the country to military rule as this was against everything he stood for.

Career

Kofi ventured into various enterprises; Opayesco Wood Processing Co Ltd, K K Power & Co ltd, P. K. Amoabeng Enterprise Ltd, Schiewer Gh. Ltd. He also made time to run a consulting firm, Jam Haus. From 1992-2002, he was an excellent teacher at the Ghana Stock Exchange, and a major resource person. His endeavors included oil procurement, and he facilitated the entry of the French petroleum company Elf into Ghana.

In1997, he conceptualized the idea of setting up a ‘finance house’ to provide timely and appropriate finance for businessmen like himself who found it almost impossible to get such assistance from the traditional banking sector. With friends urging him on, he took the plunge, and with co-founder and Chairman of the company, Mr Joseph Nsonamoah, they registered it initially as Best Financial Services, and then later, upon advice from the Bank of Ghana, changed the name to Unique Trust Financial Services (Now UT Bank).

In a short, but eventful span of some 15 years, raising an initial 255 million cedis(25,000 Ghana cedis) as seed money, and staff of 3 operating from a tiny office at Kantamanto in the Central Business District in Accra, UT is now a Bank with a turnover of about US$55.5, more than 600 employees and 26 branches in seven of the ten regions of Ghana.

He has extensive experience in managing businesses through excellent customer relations, strategic and tactical business planning as well as strategic partnerships.

His Achievements include:

1.  Lifetime Achievement for Innovation in Africa, 2013
2. Johnnie Walker Giant, 2012. A global “Walk With Giants” campaign.
3. Overall Best Entrepreneur in the Maiden Ghana Entrepreneurs Award (2011)
4. One of two Ghanaians profiled in Moky Makura’s book on Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs which profiles 16 of Africa’s top entrepreneurs.
5. Three times running Ghana’s Most Respected CEO for 2008/2010/2012.
6. National Honours for an Order of the Star of the Volta- Officer’s Division presented by the President of Ghana in 2008.
7. Marketing Man of the Year 2006,

Mr Amoabeng is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ghana Interbank Payment Settlement System (GHIPSS); a member of the Council of Enablis Ghana (Canadian Entrepreneurial NGO) and a member of the International Advisory Board of China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), in Ghana.

Source: princekofiamoabeng.com