 Ken Ofori-Atta, Executive Chairman DatabankThere is a side of Ken Ofori-Atta you may not know—he loves to dream. “That is not dead time,” the Executive Chairman of Databank speaks of the time he spends dreaming. “It is what gives you ideas, the passion and the energy to pursue,” he elaborates on dreams. This April, Databank, the company that he and his family friend –Keli Gadzekpo and joined by Togbe Afedi XIV (then James Akpo) founded celebrates it twentieth anniversary, and Ofori-Atta and his compatriots are still dreaming, but this time in incredible proportions.
And what are those dreams?
They want to have as many customers as Vodafone’s present mobile subscribers—reaching two million Ghanaians and managing investments in the region of US$2 billion (that is about ten percent of Ghana’s GDP); and they want to do this between now and the next five years. There are again other things on their wish list – they also want to become the best place to work, provide gold standard customer service and list on the stock exchange to become a publicly listed company with over 100,000 shareholders!
Presently, Databank has 200, 000 clients and has US$200 million under its management.
“It is scary to think about, it is big, it is hairy, it is audacious, they are crazy goals,” Ofori-Atta himself says of what the Databank family terms BHAGs – Big Hairy Audacious Goals (pronounced Bee Hags).
“It represents a stretch; something that will not commonly make sense in a business plan,” he adds.
The aspirations are the by-product of his excessive belief that immense good can come out of Ghana’s present laboring development situation.
“It is these thoughts, it is this restlessness, the disappointment with the level of poverty, the agitation that this country can be better than it is that birthed the aspirations,” he speaks of how those aspirations were dreamt up. Ofori-Atta sees a parallel between his life and Ghana’s destiny. It may surprise you, but Ofori-Atta’s beginning was not as glorious as it looks today. His conception was apparently a slip-up and it was intended to abort foetus Ofori-Atta. “So look at me, I was born out of wedlock and I could have been aborted, but I wasn’t. Some woman had the courage and decided not to do that. I had trouble with my A-Levels. Databank started from one room in Kantamanto and EPACK was launched with GH¢25 and 5 investors! So how then, can one not believe that from ashes can come incredibly good things?” he speaks of the parallels of his life and Ghana.
Again, his belief that all sorts of things can come out of ashes compelled him to leave his stable and promising job at Wall Street to Ghana to found Databank with his colleagues when Ghana’s capital markets were in their nascent stages. At that time, there were no guarantees; they were just consumed by their passion and the skills they had acquired from elsewhere, but were gifted with a loan of US$25,000 by two individuals who they infected with their zeal, the two were – Afare Donkor, then Managing Director of Cal Bank and Fred Oware, then at Securities Discount House (SDC).
From their modest beginning at Kantomanto where they worked from, they have grown the company to be the leading capital market player employing over one hundred and fifty people with the most successful mutual funds and Stock brokerage trading capacity in over ten African countries.
The twenty years have not been without incidents or trials. The company has been tested several times, but the most publicised was its Obotan project in 2001. The Obotan development was a real estate development they had conceptualised to develop along the independence avenue with other partners including SSNIT, but suffered from a lot of bad press.
“It’s a painful process, yes, but will it kill you? No, it won’t kill you […] but if you look at the entire package of the blessings of being a Ghanaian, it overrides this experience,” he speaks of the turbulent patches they have gone through.
When prodded by the reporter if they could have saved themselves the pain and gotten better dividends if they had set shop elsewhere, he acknowledged that they would have achieved more material success elsewhere, but the Databank project is more than material success; it has more to do with significance, that is impacting one’s community beyond personal success..
On significance, Ofori-Atta is a strong believer in ethics and family values.
The company, has a set of values which they strive to adhere to – Leadership, Excellence , Humility and Integrity – LEAP HIgh.
His mum and grandma laid the foundations for his belief in ethics and values.
“My mum and grandma were really prayerful people who were protective and positive of who they believed I will become,” he said of them. According to Ofori-Atta, one of the key things that his childhood and partner’s family (the Gadzekpo’s)have bequeathed to him is the sense of family. “They gave me a sense of completeness; a perspective of family, which was wholesome and stable,” he said of the Gadzekpos.
“When it’s all said and done, it’s all about God, country and family.
Family is your resting place; that is your history. There are children to influence; children to bring up,” he said of family.
To more controversial issues such as politics, in the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, Ofori-Atta was not a covert supporter of the New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo. Asked why he took sides, he said: “Are some people not allowed to take sides? I do not run a government company. Why should a well situated person not care about the future of the country? Why should we seed politics to a few?” Ofori-Atta said it would be hypocritical to think he would not have taken sides when he has bloodlines with three of Ghana’s Big Six (J B Danquah, William Ofori-Atta and Akufo-Addo) and his cousin was contesting as a candidate.
“You should believe in a certain ideology and when you believe, you stick to it,” he adds.
Asked if he will become a full-fledged politician one day, he said: “I will not become a politician, but will I be quiet about politics, absolutely not!” Databank is in a transition to handover to a new set of leaders. When this writer conjectured that he would not be redundant after the transition, Ofori-Atta said: “There will still be a lot of youth to motivate and inspire, there will still be a lot of people who have not been educated enough, there will still be a lot of politicians who are running errant, there will still be a lot of Christian evangelism that needs to be done. There will be lots of work – purpose led – to do! “
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