By Frederick ASIAMAH & Sheila A. WILLIAMS
More than half-a-century ago, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, declared that the black man (or woman) is capable of managing his own affairs.
Sixty years later, today, there are black men and women whose performance in business has been a demonstration of the validity of Dr Nkrumah’s argument.
Droves of such business kingpins will, this Saturday and Sunday, marry their interests with top pastors or men of God and converge at the plush La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra. The occasion is the “SpiritPreneurship Summit 2017,” which is a gathering of Christian entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Organiser Kharis Group LLC has lined up 15 personalities to speak during the summit, which will be on the theme: “Creating Transgenerational Wealth.”
Array of stars
Host speaker Dr Randy Osae Bediako, who is both Founder of the Spiritpreneurship Summit and chief executive officer of Kharis Group LLC, will be joined by the likes of Bishop Agyinasare, Founder & Presiding Bishop of Perez Chapel International and Rev. Reindorf Okraku Mantey, General Overseer of Crusaders Ministries (USA).
Also on the bill are Richard Dugan, Group President, McOttley Holdings; Prophet Nana Agyemang, Founder of Possibility Centre; Dzigbordi K. Dosoo, Founder & CEO of DKD Holdings; Samuel Bright-Kaitoo, CEO of Galaxy Capital Ltd.; and Abena Brigidi, CEO of Nimed Capital Ltd.
Others are Alex E. Asiedu, MD of Stanlib Ghana Ltd.; Happy D. Forson, MD of McOttley Capital Ltd.; Nana O. Addo-Dankwa, CEO of InvestEye Capital Ltd.; Linda Larbi, MD of Ocean Springs Ltd.; George K. Addison, MD of Old Mutual Life Ghana; Jacqueline Benyi, ED of Enterprise Life; and Samuel Sakyi-Hyde, CEO, uniCredit Ghana Ltd.
Transgenerational Wealth
On the choice of theme, Kharis Group LLC founds the rationale on the Bible, pointing out that the good book “declares in Proverbs 13:22 that, ‘A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children…’
Therefore, “Wealth is great and should be created and transferred to future generations.
“Unfortunately in our part of the world, many people do not attempt to consciously create wealth for the next generation. To a large extent, this is part of the reason for the vicious cycle of poverty that the continent wallows in at the moment. The event organizers strongly believe that this is an emergency situation that needs attention,” Kharis Group LLC posited.
From the speakers
In separate interviews, some of the speakers have shared, with Business Day Ghana, what attendees of the summit can expect to learn from them.
Abena Brigidi, CEO of Nimed Capital Ltd. said “We’re talking about investment and wealth creation…if you have heard from everybody and you have still not be able to put your finances right, come and listen to me, and let me give you good keys, to be able to build or plan your finances or plan your retirement.”
On the substantive issue of mixing Christian values with business, Brigidi posited that “Bible says that in all your ways acknowledge him, and I would direct your path. If you want to go somewhere in business, you don’t have a choice but to acknowledge God, so that he can direct your wealth.
“He is the one who can give us the power to create wealth, so there’s no way you can go without him.
“The whole idea of business is to be able to create wealth or make money for yourself, and if the Bible tells us that, this spirituality or this God factor is what is going to give you wealth, he can give you the power to create the wealth, then why would you want to mess around.
“He is the number one factor, you can’t do it without him, she emphasized.”
Samuel Bright-Kaitoo, CEO of Galaxy Capital Ltd. has similar thoughts. “I agreed to be on the summit because it is a platform to educate the public. It is a good platform to help people to understand the basics of wealth creation; the basics of entrepreneurship; the basics of personal financial management.”
He emphasized young people in particular should take interest in managing their finances such that they will be able to grow a start-up capital for their own businesses. This is because, “it is very important that if you start a business as an entrepreneur…you have your own money as equity in the business.”
So what would he be saying? Business Day quizzes.
“Well, I am going to share with them some of my experience as a business leader. I’m also going to share with them some of the strategies in creating wealth…then, how as an individual you can create wealth and transfer the wealth to generations that will come after you.
“So, we are talking about having the mind-set of transgenerational wealth creation where I will share the principle of having a cathedral mentality.”
On the part of Alex E. Asiedu, Managing Director of Stanlib Ghana Ltd., the fusion of wealth creation and Christian values is compelling topic for examination, hence his decision to join the list of speakers.
In terms of the content of his presentation, it will be “Nothing off the charts.”
He explained, “I mean, if people think that they are going to hear new strategies for realising financial outcomes, they will get it wrong. With the work we do here (Stanlib), we’ve noticed a few home truths.
“There’s nothing new under the sun. Making money involves the same principles today as they did a thousand years ago –a commitment to your core values; honesty plus integrity, ethics, being faithful to the customer, working your socks off so that there are no short cuts. I mean, walking your Christian talk.”
He continued: “If you say that you will deliver ‘A’ to your client, don’t take short cuts with it. Do what you say you would do for the client. I mean, I think our society has forgotten those basics. At the risk of sounding cynical, what we do is that we go to church and we pray a lot and then we compartmentalise our lives.
“So, what people will hear from me is that let’s go back to the basics; let’s go back to the hard, ethical background. Let’s go back to respecting core values, integrity, etc. It means that road to wealth creation will be long but it also means that when we get to where we want to get to we would also be able to leave a legacy.
“So, if people think they are going to learn new strategies that would double their wealth in six months, etc., I would want to think that they might not want to come for the talk,” he concluded.
