From messenger to Deputy Minister: The story of Edward Ato Sarpong
By Edmund Smith-Asante, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
The
nominee of President John Dramani Mahama for the post of Deputy Minister of
Communications, Mr Edward Ato Sarpong, during his vetting last Friday, told the
Appointments Committee of Parliament that he started his working life as a
messenger.
Mr
Sarpong said at the IPS, students had to combine their studies with evening and
weekend classes, so they had to work in order to make some money to pay for
their high tuition fees.
Working
life
“I had a
job at Kenbert Mines as the accountant and again, during that period, I was
frequently travelling from Accra to Ntronang in the Eastern Region, where I was
paying the workers who were doing exploration for us.”
After a
short stay, he said, he started his professional practice as an audit trainee
at Owusu & Fiadjoe, which later became Fiadjoe & Associates and then
Ernst & Young as it is known today.
Since
then, the nominee for the Communications Ministry had never looked back as he
worked with SCOA Ghana Limited, which was the sole distributor of Peugeot, Opel
and Chevrolet vehicles in Ghana, as Chief Accountant from 1999 until it was
liquidated in 2002.
Other
positions he has held include: Finance Manager for Africa Online Ghana Limited,
Regional Financial Controller, West Africa, for Africa Online Holdings, then
Managing Director for Africa Online Ghana Limited.
From
there, he became the Regional Managing Director - West Africa for Africa Online
Holdings Limited, the Lead Consultant and Chief Operating Officer for K-Net
Limited, a provider of connectivity solutions to banks and corporate
institutions in Ghana, and has also worked as the Lead Consultant and Director,
Operations and Commercial, for TV3 Network Limited.
Mr
Sarpong, who is now a Chartered Accountant, had also worked as a Business
Consultant for Multimedia Group Limited, owners of Joy FM, Adom FM, Multi TV
and others, as well as a Business Consultant and Trainer for Edge Capital
Partners, his own firm, since 2011, and served as a business and leadership
trainer and motivational speaker.
Difficult
early years
All these did not come
on a silver platter. He had a modest beginning, schooling at the Edinaman
Secondary School at Elmina, from September 1983 to June 1984, and then to the
Snaps College of Accountancy from September 1984 to June 1988, where he offered
the GCE ‘O’ level, RSA Staged 2 and 3.
Quizzed on why his CV
showed he was in Edinaman Secondary School from 1983 to 1984, Mr Sarpong, who
hails from Elmina in the Central Region, replied “Mr Chair, 1982, 1983,
probably was the most difficult part of my life.
“That was when my
mother died and I had no one to live with. So when I gained admission to Aggrey
Memorial, my grandmother who I lived with, could not afford, so I ended up in
my hometown Elmina and I was enrolled at Edinaman Secondary School.
“Luckily thereafter, I
had the courage to move from that environment to Accra, where I bargained with
an Aunty of mine, to live with her in return for education and that’s when I
ended at Snaps College of Accountancy, where I did my GCE ‘0’ Level, RSA Stage
2, Stage 3 here in Accra.”
Domestic
Roaming
Answering questions
from members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament on various issues
relating to the communications ministry, Mr Sarpong recommended the adoption of
Domestic Roaming, to resolve the problem of inaccessibility at certain places
due to the absence of telecommunication masts.
He also told the
committee that the government had already signed an agreement on Digital
Terrestrial Migration and would migrate by June 17, 2015.
On the high incidence
of radio stations originally registered as community radio turning into
commercialised stations, he assured that when given the nod, he would assist
the minister to look at the licencing regime of radios which go national through
synchronisation with other radio stations.
Mr Sarpong also stated
that a e-transform project that was on course would incorporate e-Parliament,
to automate registration and other administrative activities in Parliament.
He told the committee
that instances where calls from overseas appeared as though they were local
calls were as a result of sim boxing caused by fraudsters. To fight that and
other telecommunication-related crimes, he called for technical orientation for
judges so they would understand those crimes and punish accordingly.
Writer’s
email: Edmund.Asante@graphic.com.gh
This story was first published by the Daily Graphic
on July 18, 2014
Comments
Post a Comment