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TV Africa's Esi Arhin And Her '100 Watts' Smile

30.11.2010 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic

Esi ArhinEsi Arhin breezed onto our television screens two years ago when she had her debut as a presenter on TV Africa's morning show “Daybreak” and has since made her mark on the screen.

Her engaging personality and pleasant demeanour makes her a joy to watch. She was also the host of the 2009 Charted Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) TV programme of the year “Obaa Mbo” on the same network, which she took on a year ago.

Not too long ago, viewers had the pleasure of travelling the country with her via television as the field presenter documenting the amazing stories on the ‘Zain Touching Lives’ documentaries which is the 2010 CIMG programme of the year. This really enabled viewers to see her versatility as a presenter outside the studio.


She does not only work in front of the camera but behind as well. She is one of the executive producers of ‘3 Heads and a Pen Productions/ GTV’ collaboration, a current affairs programme “In the house,” which seeks to bridge the gap between parliament and the public by discussing further the issues debated on the floor of parliament.

Esi, however, has had stints with radio and television in the past. Her earlier encounters were with GBC, when she read letters from viewers on Charlie Sam's “What's new” on Unique Fm. She has also worked with Carl Agyemang Bannerman on his show, “Solid black”.

In 1994 she applied to present “Music for You” on GTV and was asked to understudy Doris Sackitey and Tim Quashigah who were the presenters of the show at the time.

After six months or more of spending her Saturday afternoons in the studios of GTV understudying the pair, she decided to give up when one fine Saturday, Doris Sackitey was late for the show and five minutes to time John Owusu, who was then the producer of the show, decided to put her on with Tim Quashigah.


Elated, she was made up, seated, wired up, about to be counted down when Doris Sackitey walked in at the very last minute. John Owusu then asked her to step down for Doris. After a couple of weeks she lost interest in pursuing the show. Disappointed, she called it quits with television.

She fell in love with veteran filmmaker Kwaw Ansah's ideals of television broadcasting. She was pursuing her studies at the School of Performing Arts when she applied as a news presenter in 2002 to TV Africa, hoping to combine work with her studies.

She was selected and trained, however she couldn't combine the two, since the job and the studies were both demanding. She was then asked by the station to make a choice and she chose to complete her studies instead.

After acquiring a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, she concentrated on her family for some time until she co-founded a social mobilisation consultancy but television continued to beckon her until she responded to the call.


A Fanti woman from Gomoa Pinanko in the Central Region and the second of five siblings and a proud mother of three, Esi is the daughter of Joan Addo and Ex WOI John Albert Arhin.

Asked what motivates her to wake up at the ungodly hour of 3:00 in the morning three times a week to prepare for the presentation of “DayBreak”, she said it was her burning desire to impact positively on the attitude and thinking of our people to drive our country's development further through the magical medium of television.

She aspires to present a radio programme someday soon. She also hopes to try her hands on a current affairs programme given the opportunity.

Esi Arhin is proud to be part of the transitional period of the media in Ghana and looks forward to our media's growth perhaps 20 years down the road. That is if Diplomacy and International Relations do not whisk her away to another sphere of life.

She believes in service and “doing Good in the world” and as such is a Rotarian and a member of the Rotary Club of Accra, Labone. She currently serves as the club’s public relations chair and is joining hands with Rotarians all over the world building communities and bridging continents. She's also the secretary to Women in Film and Television (WIFT) Ghana chapter.

If you've not yet had an encounter with her, you can catch her live Monday morning on TV Africa's popular morning show “Daybreak”.

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