Osei Kwame Despite

Osei Kwame Despite (born 2 February 1962) is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and a philanthropist with a foundation in music creation and knowledge of the broadcasting sector.^[1] Osei-Kwame is the CEO of the Despite Firm Ltd, a trade company with subsidiaries in the media industry, including UTV, PEACE FM, OKAY FM, NEAT FM and HELLO FM in Kumasi.^[2][3][4][5] He was named Africa Entrepreneur of the Year at the African Achievers Awards in the United Kingdom in 2021.^[6][5] He was also honored with GH CAPTAIN's Award in 2019 for his contributions to the socio-economic development of the country.^[7]

Early life

In the Ghanaian town of Agona Wiamoase, he was born, in the Ashanti region. He began his career as a merchant in Dunkwa-Offinso, Ghana's Central Region, selling music cassettes, feeding bottles, padlocks, and other items. After years of struggling to make ends meet in the countryside, he and his colleagues relocated to Lagos, Nigeria.^[8]

In 1983, he returned to Ghana with other Ghanaians who had fled Nigeria due to the country's political unrest. Back to his country, he only had a trident cassette player and a chain-saw machine. He started a timber contracting business with the chain-saw machine, but it was smashed by a falling tree on his first business trip. ^[9] He eventually moved on to selling cassette tapes before diversifying his business.^[10]

Career

To show his support for the local music industry and to prioritize Ghanaian culture, he moved into radio and founded the PeaceFM at Achimota Mile 7 Junction in 1999.^[2] The station's experiments with the Akan language paid off, as radio listeners looking for local programming abandoned stations broadcasting primarily in the Queen's language on the 104.3 frequency.^{[citation needed]} The radio industry flourished, culminating in the establishment of Hello FM in Kumasi and OkayFM in Accra, as well as peacefmonline.com.^[11]

List of Companies^[12]

Now, the Despite Group of Companies (DGC) has the following companies;

• U2 Company Limited (Iodated Salt Production)^[13]
• Okay FM
• Peace FM
• Neat FM
• Hello FM
• Despite Stores
• Best Point Savings and Loans (Finance)
• Farming and Building Construction businesses
• Neat Foods Company Limited (which produces and markets NEAT Fufu, NEAT Banku, NEAT Abenkwan, NEAT Hausa Koko, NEAT Dairy Products)^[14]
• United Television Company Limited
• Atona Foods LTD ( which produces THIS WAY chocolate drink which comes in different flavors, and the THIS WAY Motherlac children's cereal )^[15]

Personal life

Despite has a wife and nine children. Kennedy Osei Asante, his first son, is the General Manager of Despite Media.^[16] In 2019, he married Tracy in an expensive ceremony that drew the attention of many people both inside and outside the country.^[17][18][19] He is noted for collecting luxurious vehicles and has a great love for exotic cars.^[20] He purchased a 3'000'000$ Bugatti Chiron in February 2022 to mark his 60th birthday, making him one of just 5 individuals in Africa who own a Bugatti. ^[21]

References