Kwame A.A Opoku is a Futurist, Global Business Keynote Speaker, Tedx Speaker, Brand Architect, Public Speaking Coach, Serial Entrepreneur and a Social Media/Digital Marketer.
As an entrepreneur, he is CEO of Mary & Mary
Global partners, a leading communications marketing and PR firm with a bank of
super creative and talented minds connecting, informing and creating inspiring
work, he is also the Co-Founder and Lead Curator of WE FESTIVAL AFRICA a unique
platform dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs who are in the trenches of
building their business.
He is one of the most recognised voices on the Continent in
the Area of Exponential technologies and has since founded Future of Business
Africa (FOBA). FOBA GLOBAL is an independent non-profit futuristic business
think tank using exponential technologies to tackle Africa’s biggest challenges
and creating the future —today.
HE is also the Co-Founder of the Africa
Institute of Business, Innovation and Technology, a collaborative learning
platform and educational institute focused on raising the next crop of
exponential thinkers and innovators. HE is an itinerary speaker on the subject
of AI, Robotics, Space Economy, Nano Technology, Virtual Reality, Augmented
Reality, Opto Genetics, Exponential Organizations, Disruptions Curves etc.
Kwame is an Event Curator, Creative Lead, Creative Director,
Brand Architect, Copywriter and have successfully lead Creative Campaigns and
Projects for Multinational Corporations and SMEs. He is also a Vice Chair, West
Africa for the Young CEOs Business Forum, one of the World’s leading
Organizations, head of all YCBF related projects within the West African
region, making me Head of Operations in 16 Countries
He is also a Founding Partner of Idea Factory Africa. He was
named among the Top 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow by the St. Gallen Symposium,
2018 and awarded the African Youth of the Year (Male) at the Africa Youth
Awards 2018.
He is currently the Lead at Reset Global People, who focuses on Global Youth
Summit for the SDGS, their sole focus is to activate young people to contribute
towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also
referred to as the Global Goals and Agenda 2030.
t’s a pretty amazing story and I really do not know how I’m
going to tell the story without putting God in perspective and so for anybody
that does not identify the ‘Christ’ I think that’s significant to mention I’m
nothing without grace.
I’m a serial entrepreneur and hail from Dormaa Ahenkro , a town
in the Brong Ahafo Region(Ghana). In the town where I’m from, the level of
success can be likened to you purchasing a DaewooTico which was normally used
for taxi services, during the time in which that particular vehicle was in
vogue or season. I grew up in Dormaa Ahinkro, where it’s a pure farming
community, so as a kid you also have to follow suit. As a typical village boy
back in those days, we had crown corks of soft drinks which we referred to as
‘counters’, which we used to play a certain kind of football, which we used our
hands to control the “counters” and my favourite player was Ronaldo.
I spent the first 10 years of my life in that village and as was the norm
there, you take over the farm, find a wife, make a family and continue your
life on the path of farming. My dad was able to obtain a scholarship to study
outside the country, so my mum also decided to relocate from the village, which
we found ourselves in Kumasi and that’s where everything changed. At the age of
10 was the very first time I saw a television with coloured pictures, and the
people around were amazed when we gathered to watch a movie. Let me tell you a
very funny story, I haven’t told anyone that, in my village whenever you see a
lot of cars going and they are horning it’s a wedding. Very simple so that’s
what am used to, so when I arrived in Kumasi, Kejetia to be precise, and saw
traffic, I didn’t know what it was, so I was in a car and I was shocked whose
wedding it could be, and how important is that person,that all these cars are
going to his wedding.
I was not educated till I came to Kumasi and was enrolled in a school, where a
lot of people looked down on me because I was a village boy, I needed to adapt
and I was pretty much at a very young age. So I started embellishing my
vocabulary and polished it up. After JHS at Tweneboa Kodua, I then got
admission to Opoku Ware(high school), and that was where I discovered God and
all this came about, that’s why I said that purely I’m a product of grace. For
someone like me,
I didn’t choose entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship chose me.
I started showbiz in 2009 when Facebook had just peaked, we didn’t have any
publicist in this country by then, it was only one man by name Ameyaw Debra, he
was running a website called AmeyawDebrah.com and nobody else so when I came
in, I reached out to so many people and that is one of the many things I need
the young people to know. It will not be given to you on a silver platter; you
will need to take it.If I tell you how I built my company, how I transitioned
from showbiz to a proper business and entrepreneurship. It was divine
orchestrated there’s no other way. I came up in business, I started off with
writing, I call, I sent messages to every artist, email, doing interviews and I
was doing it once I had that opportunity, I never for once wrote anything
negative about anybody. I started my own blog Quamejnr.com so back then the
only 2 publicists were Ameyaw Debrah and myself
So I got introduced to Reggie Rockstone and it was a pleasure
meeting such a personality. So we went into a meeting and he told me to be his
PR manager. At age 21, I was then 4syte events manager and at that tender age I
did my first event at the International Conference center.
So it was Reggie Rockstone who birthed the Entrepreneurship spirit in me.
I think my greatest inspiration is my mum. She told me that if you want it, go
and get it. She was the first person who believed I could become anything
bigger than Dormaa Ahinkro. I wanted to be able to give her the life she
deserves and make her proud. That my son lived up to something. It’s always
been mum and her wok. When I was a kid, she was working four jobs 9 to 5. She
was selling water and kenkey in the afternoon. She will fry plantain and yam in
the evenings and then during weekends go and sell farm produce. She was running
four enterprises.
In the next 5 years the ministry side would have probably
kicked in because I have a calling on my life that I will never ever overlook.
I think my calling is what has dictated my space of business because I think
God is making a very strong statement in this season and is raising a new wave
and crop of Christians who will not only control the spiritual but will control
monumental money because I think it’s about time we owned the Airport and owned
TV stations.
Instead of standing in a program and preaching a one hour
message on why they shouldn’t be watching the telenovela’s, where they are
kissing, can you start a channel and give them an alternate Christian series
that they will watch? In the next 5 years, I see a TV station, the companies
growing, and a ministry as God will have it and global impact in each and every
where possible. In the next 5years I would have launched the Idea Factory
Africa University.
The final advice I will give is to look for an
altar to back you. Like I can’t even stress this enough. There’s a reason why I
picked those words ‘look for an altar’ because there’s no way you are going to
achieve greatness without an altar and I cannot sell my altar to you by force.
I believe in Christ so my bedrock is there. I believe in fasting, I believe in
prayers, I believe in seed sowing, I believe in tithe.
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