Spotlight

Introducing Michael Ankrah (aka Bullet) ……

 

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

 I remember starting my primary school at Prestea Anglican Primary School in about 1968. My parents had travelled to the United Kingdom, so I was staying with my great grandmother. However, in 1970 my sister Hetty and I were sent to stay with a family friend, Ms Mary Badu in Akropong, Akwapim. Here, I spent two years at Demonstration Primary School and just when I passed the entrance exam to the middle school in 1972, my parents returned and moved us to Accra. I was admitted at Association International School, Class Five and it was from there I sat the Common Entrance and found myself at Achimota School.

I think my parents chose Achimota School for me because my uncle (Dr David Yankey) was on the School Board. I started off in Form 1D and settled in Gyamfi House with eleven hard young men. I learnt to play cricket, hockey, badminton, volleyball etc. and enjoyed all the games we played. I was already quite conversant with table tennis and ended up playing in almost every house that had a table tennis set up. The inter- house rivalry was most pleasant and I enjoyed it tremendously.

I enjoyed the Golden Jubilee celebration so much and I remember taking part in the mass gymnastics right across from the chapel. Anytime I go to the Aggrey chapel, I still see myself hopping and jumping around the place. I breezed through to Form 5, the O level appeared and disappeared.

I found myself in L6A, but I wasn’t comfortable with Economics and History, so I forced a change to L6M to join my dear paddies, Bobzu (Kwadwo) and Smart (Clarence). Sixth form was another experience. I got grounded in my faith as I moved on with wonderful people like EMiT, Dag, Agyesco (Raymond), Frank Millen, Eddy, Herman, Gre (Gladys), Tiokor (Angela) and others.

Maybe just one confession to make during my Motown years.  I had a serious crush on one of the girls (shall remain nameless), when we both started off in form 1D, but somehow navigated the whole year without uttering a single word to her. I do wonder if she had any idea though…..

Unfortunately for me I missed the Medico boat and ended up at the University of Ghana, Legon reading Crop Science. It took a bit of an adjustment and I almost flopped my FUE. I reorganized myself and bounced back to finish in the top 5% of my class. I graduated with an honours degree in Plant Protection and Entomology.

 

Can you give us a brief synopsis of your career history?

 I did my national service at the Crop Science Department as a teaching research assistant for two years. I then got employed by the Ministry of Agriculture as Plant Protection Officer in Cape Coast. Two years later, I was promoted and transferred to Takoradi. In 1992 I won a scholarship to pursue a postgraduate degree in plant protection methods in Germany.

On my return in 1994, I was promoted to head the regional office of the department. My major schedule was the training and supervision of plant quarantine services at the harbour and border entry points. I completed several other training programs in Ouagadougou, Cote d’ivoire and Switzerland to further strengthen my hand in delivering my mandate.

Sometime in 1998, I got to know that the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) was looking for agriculturists to support a project they were funding in Asutsuare near the Kpong Dam. I enquired about it and was offered a job to help promote the rice project which had just been initiated. On 1st July 2000, I started work at the ADB as a project officer and worked on the rice project for two years. Once the inventory system at the project had been stabilized, I decided to look for other challenges and then transferred to operations (mainline banking).

 

 Can you tell us a bit more about the next phase of your career?

 After taking a few more courses, I was Operations Manager for two branches until 2010. Management had decided to list on the stock exchange but the Nostro accounts were in a mess, so a project was put in place to try to straighten the accounts out. I was transferred to the Nostro reconciliation team on 2nd January 2012. The work here was quite tedious. It involved matching transactions in the various accounts with our foreign corresponding to ensure that outstanding transactions were real.

The six member team managed to clean up all our Nostro accounts by the end of 2014. By this time, the bank got a software to move the Nostro accounts from a largely manual system to a digital system. Then the bank was passed to proceed with its programme towards the listing. In 2016 after a series of hiccups, ADB was listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Currently I am involved in ensuring that we remit to the Revenue Authority all monies due government by way of taxes and levies on due dates as demanded by law.

 

 

You spent some time in Germany for your Postgraduate degree. How was the experience and were there any difficulties in learning the language and adapting to the culture?

 I enjoyed my time in Germany. I met very nice families and made lots of friends. Fortunately for me learning the language was quite simple because l had done about 3 months beginners’ course while I was doing my National Service in Legon. I got promoted from the beginners’ class after three weeks and I spent 4 months learning the language – 2 months of which I spent with a lovely family, Karl Heinz & Elisabeth Schultheiss and their 3 kids. There were a few times however, when I met people especially old ladies on the bus who were not so nice. And once a female colleague from Tunisia faced outright assault from a university student.

 

Auslanderfahigkeit (translation – “hatred for foreigners”), is exhibited once a while but overall it I had a positive experience in Germany. We, Lynda and l, once cooked yam and garden egg stew for the host family and they enjoyed it. Or so it seemed then.

I took part in festival called Fasching and it had people dressed like the masqueraders we have at Christmas here in Ghana. And the very infectious ‘ ‘beer garten’ when people drink beer like water from dawn to dusk. I also learnt to appreciate museums and beautiful castles especially in the Bayern region. Also, alles ute. (After all is said and done, all is well.”)…

What about Family life?

 On Sept 10th, 1994, I married my sweetheart, Matilda, who is the sister of a very good childhood friend, Alfred Asare-Duah. We have enjoyed a very healthy union since then. We have three children, Maame Adwoa, who is currently a teaching assistant at Spanish and French Departments at Legon; Papa Yaw, is in Level 400 Pharmacy at Central University; and Nana Kodwo, who is in his final year at Achimota School, Guggisberg House.

My wife, Matilda has been very supportive and a real help-meet. Where my patience gets down to nil with respect to the management of the kids, she comes in to make things smooth again. I am her biggest fan ……

It’s great to hear that your son has followed in your footsteps continuing the proud tradition of generations of the same family attending our beloved alma mater. Some people allegedly say Motown isn’t the same as it used to be when we there in the mid-70s. Can you give us a brief insight as to how the school is today and in your opinion what do you think the school needs to get back to those so-called glory days?

 Achimota School today is over-populated. This has given rise to the gold/ green tracks where each class is divided into two groups and they attend school at different times. The problem is that one group has a complement of seasoned teachers while the other group has to do with mostly newly recruited teachers.

In addition to that problem, some houses have issues with water, so they have had to resort to bore-holes to supplement the pipe borne water. However, the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) is filling in quite well to make the students a bit comfortable.

As far as the issue of pupil numbers, I wonder what can be done except to cut down on numbers, which I doubt will be feasible. We now have two new houses and a new Assembly Hall beyond the Anumle gate. Thirty additional security men have been employed to mitigate the increased risk, apart from the five or so who are catered for by the government. Thankfully the PTA takes care of these extra personnel.

Getting back to the good old days would require more commitment to teaching and learning than we have now. Most teachers are prepared to teach if you engage them for extra classes and the concept of “apo” leakage (even at the basic level exam) is every students’ expectation. It will take a bit more effort to get them to see that cheating is wrong. Might be worth a further discussion amongst all.

  

You mentioned earlier about spending some time in Ouagadougou and Abidjan, are there any comparatives between Accra in terms of the infrastructure / People friendliness etc.?

 Ouagadougou is a very disciplined city. Infrastructure wise, we are a bit ahead, but they have very neat roads and disciplined motorists. Motor bike riders obey traffic regulations and roads are much safer for both motorists and pedestrians.

Abidjan is much like Ghana but has some beautiful areas. It’s also quite neat but the police (gendarme) are quite obstinate and it’s not advisable to deal with them at all if you have the choice.

The French take their siesta very seriously. The lunch break is religiously observed and most workers will go back home for lunch and to have some rest before going back to work in the afternoon.

 

Are you involved in any voluntary/ mentoring activities etc?

 Outside official work I am involved in the church- Methodist church at Dansoman, where I currently reside. I lead bible study, prayer meetings and do some counselling now and then.

 

Retirement looms around the corner for most of our year group which scares some People. Do you share the same sentiment or are you rather looking forward looking to it?

I am looking at some real estate here and there. I am converting a property to a hostel and another rental piece in Kasoa area. I hope to establish a bookshop to keep me active and reading. As far as being scared to retire, It’s a NO from me, as I expect retirement to give me more opportunity to interact with people and places with the message of hope in Jesus Christ.

 

And finally, how will you be celebrating your impending birthday?

My birthday is a couple of weeks away. Fortunately, my eldest, youngest and I celebrate our birthdays within a period of five days and so the family usually spend a weekend out of Accra. We are thinking of going to Akosombo this year if no counter proposal comes up.

 

Michael Ankrah

1D, 2A, 3A, 4S1, 5S1, L6M, U6M

Gyamfi House