Dr. Michael Agyekum Addo: a template of productivity

Dr Michael Agyekum

Ordinary people tell their own success stories, but great people from humble beginnings allow their stories to be told on their behalf.

They open wide the doors to their humble beginnings and allow their stories to shape the world and create an alley of success for succeeding generations.

Whilst the former toot their horns in the marketplace of self-glorification, the work and legacy of the latter serve as a fertile ground for nurturing the hope and aspirations of young people, whose future are etched on the template of the success stories they have left behind.

There are several definitions for success. But to say Dr. Michael Agyekum Addo is a definition of success on the entrepreneurial landscape in Ghana as well as a template of productivity is not a flattery.

And if you were born with humble beginnings similar to his, you will understand the impact of a man, whose life spells nothing but hope for generations who look up to him.

Seating before Dr. Addo as a reporter in the comfort of his office and hear him begin his story as a boy born at a village called Suhyen near Koforidua, from a poor family would sound untrue, looking at the present comfort and facilities around him that require no one to tell you the man is a successful person.

“I had very humble beginnings as my parents were poor and had to struggle to make ends meet. My mother was a trader in vegetables at the local market and her earnings, although meager, were great support the entire family” Dr. Addo said.

Listening to him as he narrated how difficult it was when his mother became bedridden for fifteen –years, forcing him to take over her vegetable trade at a tender age of seven, in order to manage himself and his two sisters was enough to draw tears down emotional cheeks.

“Our house was very close to the school, but I was always late to school because of household chores and my trading activities. Lateness to school attracted punishment of flogging by teachers and as I was a frequent latecomer, the floggings were also frequent. The teachers could not understand my plight” Dr. Addo narrated, in a humble but definite tone that painted the picture of the enormity of his challenges.

Dr. Addo was not ashamed of his “grassy days” as a young man whose entire five-year secondary education was credited; and as a student whose secondary and university education were full of several bouts of academic failures, which eventually truncated his dream of becoming a medical doctor.

But he described his new love affair with pharmacy as “divine”, alluding to his tough childhood experiences, the tortuous journey of his secondary school education, as well as his often-frustrated university education as lessons that had toughened him to stand the test of time.

Indeed, victims of such circumstances such as Dr. Addo definitely have slimmer chances to the peak of the ladder of success. But his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy as well as an MBA in entrepreneurship did not only lay the foundations of his entrepreneurial acumen, but also gave him a mission to revive the dreams of many a people who look up to him.

It is often said that you cannot hold a good man down for a long time. And so also can their dreams not be killed. This assertion has been validated by the story of Dr. Addo, who, despite being kicked out of the premises he rented for his first pharmacy business in 1986 by his landlord, would not allow his entrepreneurial dream die premature.

Today, the little KAMA seed planted by Dr. Michael Agyekum Addo in the small neighbourhood in Kumasi Kejetia 25-years ago, has blossomed into what is today the KAKA Group of Companies comprising the KAMA Industries Limited, KAMA Health Services Limited, KAMA Clinic Limited, KAMA Estates Limited, KAMA Forex Bureau, and KAMA Conference Centre Limited.

Dr. Addo can best be described as a life of glory nurtured out of the thorns of poverty. He is a template carved out of humility on which the dreams, the focus, and the hopes of future entrepreneurs are etched.

But he also portrays a life of social responsibility: has 250 employees in his companies, has over 147 adopted children and gives them the best of life's opportunities just as his biological children; and is touted as probably having the largest number of barbering saloons throughout the country because of the hundreds of youths he supports.

Dr. Addo described entrepreneurship as a “revolution which determines the future of any nation”; and his commitment in nurturing entrepreneurs has strengthened his resolve to freely lecture entrepreneurship to students in the University of Ghana Business, Pentecost University College, CEIBS as well as many universities in the United States.

Nurturing young people to be successful in life is the dream of any mentor, and Dr. Addo has continuously pursued this dream by availing himself to youth groups and institutions, delivering over 60 lectures between 2010 to present.

Serving in various positions as President of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Ghana Industries (PMAG); fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana; and fellow of the West Africa Post Graduate College of Pharmacists, to mention a few, do not however deny him his love for sports.

All work and no play, they say, makes Jack a dull boy. Dr. Addo's love for soccer has reflected in his enthusiasm for soccer, first playing as left-winger for Anokye Stars, setting up his own KAMA Stars Football Club in which he occasionally features as a player, still adores local club--Asante Kotoko for its enchanting spirit, but highly enthusiastic about Chelsea Football Club because of Michael Essien.

The nature of Dr. Addo's family of 9 children, with the eldest child being an avowed supporter of the NDC, his wife a staunch NPP sympathizer, and himself a CPP loyalist, in his own words, is “a family where all kinds of ideas are tolerated”.

Dr. Addo sees his business, church attendance, his siesta and a Saturday walk with friends as his leisure. But “to actually take some time off—30-days, 21-days as holidays is not in my dictionary because of where I am coming from. I don't want to see poverty again, so I will prefer to die in the office whilst working as a rich man than to rest and die as a pauper” he disclosed.

“To him, success in life is to set up a goal and aim, and when you achieve them, you can tell yourself I am successful” adding that the deepest meaning of life is to improve the lot of others.

There are many incredible ways to describe the man—but to me, Michael Agyekum Addo is a great dreamer, a gift to humanity, a hallmark of success, and a template of productivity on which the future of others are shaped.