NAYA’S COLUMN: ‘THE MEET AND GREET EDITION’
EPISODE 1
He is the immediate past Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana News Agency (GNA) and now the Head of Communications of Bank of Ghana. But if the story of Mr. Otabil is limited to his life at these two reputable national institutions, there would be a lot missed about him.
“I had a good start in life as my parents ensured that l got the best education”, he stated, which, to me was a far cry from other prominent people in similar positions who would always want to paint a life of gloom in their childhood, and how divine intervention had propelled them to their current state.
His is different, as he explains: “My parents were educationists. They were strict and made us all understand that you only have one thing that can never be taken away from you, and that is education. My early school days saw me at Mfantsipim School for my Ordinary Level education, and PRESEC –Legon for my A’ Levels education. Both schools shaped my thinking and outlook on life. So whereas Mfantsipim was where the seed was sown, PRESEC watered it to ensure that the ensuing plant could grow well”.
Surely, with such an introduction into life, Mr. Otabil seems right to say he has less regrets in life. “The schools l attended helped a lot. These schools made me confident very early in life. And, my university education also ensured that l was on the right path. PRESEC made it all possible for me to enter the School of Administration (now University of Ghana Business School) and graduated with honors in accounting. That was huge- massive. As l progressed in life l noticed how the basics were important. I gained my MBA from the University of Hull in 1997 and went ahead to also complete the full examinations of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)”.
With that foundation Mr. Otabil says he has always been thankful to his “Maker for making it all happen”. I got awestruck when he explained how he got into the financial journalism space and eventually becoming a financial author of some repute.
“My story has a lot of people involved”, he said smiling. “So, l would start from my influencers when l was in University. We had management books that made a lot of sense to me, especially those by Michael Porter, Peter Drucker, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. In fact, l remember reading In Search of Excellence by Peters and Waterman and getting really impressed by the number of people they had to interview to get that book out. I set out to be an author too!”
Continuing, he said: “I started writing and when l finished my MBA in 1997 my first career break was to work in investment banking on a derivatives desk. I got access to a lot of financial information so decided to do some serious writing for some newspapers. I soon noticed that my work was sought after by many more publishers so l decided to go professional by undertaking professional training programmes in journalism and advanced features writing. These were mainly evening courses. And another interesting development was when Everest Ekong of blessed memory, the man who started Business in Africa Magazine and was also publisher of B&FT engaged me to be writing stock market, commodities and financial reports for him. It was my work with Ekong that led to a call from Kofi Badu, then Managing Director of Graphic Communications for a meeting on possible opportunity to work together. This was when Graphic was taking over West Africa magazine in London- in 1999. I bought into the West Africa magazine story also and l am sure that is where a lot of people know my work from because it was a long period of association and the publication was massive too”.
Explaining further how he also became the launch editor of Graphic Business newspaper, Mr. Otabil explained as follows: “This was when Mohammed Awal was the Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group. I was kind of surprised that the Group did not have a business newspaper so l wrote a concept paper for a business paper and sent it to him. He immediately bought into it so l flew down from London to Accra, bearing my own expenses. We had discussions on it and left within three days. I had friends at Graphic then so some of them hinted it to me that they had actually engaged some consultants in the past but they couldn’t pull it off! I was determined and l can say that l called Mr. Awal more times than he did, just to get the publication done. Eventually, he asked for some changes in the proposal and a formal presentation, following which l was engaged to start. I started it well and after its launch in August 2008, today, it has become a leading business paper in the country. I love reading it and it is one of my proud moments in life. To think of the fact that journalists from that paper are now winning awards makes me so proud to have pulled it off.”
Mr. Otabil is also an academic, having taught for several years, first as adjunct, and eventually becoming the Dean of the AUCC Business School (now Sam Jonah School of Business), Master level teaching and thesis supervision at the Ghana Telecom University (GTUC) and also at the Islamic University. And he explains the similarities between the setting up of the Business School and how Graphic Business was established.
“When l was happy about the progress of Graphic Business, l resigned and joined Esoko Ghana as the Managing Director. It was a new role and, again, it was also a start- up then. We went through various phases and made significant progress in a short time. I had an idea that l wanted to pursue so decided to run it by Hon. Kojo Yankah, the president of the African University College of Communications (AUCC) at the time and the founder. So we had a meeting at the Holiday Inn Hotel and it was at this event that he discussed with me an idea of a Business School at AUCC and some of challenges he had to take off. I left the meeting satisfied about the way forward and what we could do together. So, yes, l took that up again, as a start- up, and moved it up, launched it with structures in place and from zero students to almost 200 within a year. After that we grew it semester after semester and introduced weekend school too. So, you see, l am never afraid of challenges as a l have been involved in more than 10 start-ups and they are all doing very well today”, he said.
Mr. Otabil joined the Ghana News Agency after successfully emerging the top candidate after a rigorous interview to become the CEO of the Agency. There, he introduced a number of innovative products, including the first web -based subscription model for the Agency, and also a fully branded website-www.labaari.com.
Yet, he was very modest with his work at the GNA, stating that “GNA stands to do very well in the future. In my three and half years there, recruitment restrictions by the Government within the public sector made it difficult to hire some additional skills to run with the new products introduced. I am hopeful that whoever succeeds me will do well because available now is a comprehensive document on the turnaround strategy. The Agency just needs to add to the existing pool in order to adapt fully to some of the new media tools available”.
His column in the Mirror newspaper, Money Matters, has been running for seven years and the author of the Little Leaks that keeps you Poor still talks about “the best is yet to come”.
Stepping down into his everyday life, when asked what his top 5 favorite Ghanaian dishes were, he answered, “I love banku with okra stew, followed by the same banku with tilapia, next would be a well prepared goat light soup, jollof rice and then wrap it up with waakye. But truth of the matter is you can never go wrong with banku.” He said laughing. He further added that, he used to be a restaurant manager in the UK while he was doing his MBA in 1997. Mr. Otabil claimed that he loves cooking and he could make any type of local and continental dish including pizzas. In his words, “salad bar was my specialty.”
He added: “Resting on your laurels is a very dangerous thing to do. I learn to do something new every year and my advice to the youth is that they must stay focused at all times. Don’t be eager to get rich quick. Just continue doing the right things and the rest will fall into place. Hard work pays and therefore you must continue to do your best at all times.”
It was indeed a pleasure interacting with the communication mogul. A lot was learnt and I would definitely want to have him on my column over and over again.
Look out for our next guest on next week’s episode of Naya’s column; the meet and greet edition.
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