I was one of the youngest entrepreneurs at Kingsway in the 1990s - Julius Debrah

Former Chief of Staff to the former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, has opened up about his second love, aside from politics.

Speaking about how he made it well in life in the early 1990s, he said he chose to be a businessman instead of furthering his education. He explained, as a Kwahu indigene, the thinking then was that

Read full articlea man is measured by the depth of his pocket and not degrees, so as a young man, he was guided to learn trading from the Okaishie chain of stores.

Mr. Debrah disclosed this in an interview with vlogger Kwahu Ambassador, sighted by GhanaWeb.

Having abandoned the idea of going to university after leaving Achimota School, Mr. Debrah mentioned that he was one of the finest young entrepreneurs in then Kingsway Building at Tudu, Accra, in the early 1990s.

As a young man, he owned a car, had enough money, and had built a house from his hard work at that time.

However, when his Achimota classmates updated him about their lives - some being Managing Directors in some companies - he felt the need to go back to school, despite having enough money then.

"In the 1990s, majority of the people thought the strength of a man then was solely money and not school. So I didn't want to go the university. I stayed at Okaishie to work for sometime...At a point, you meet your friends and they tell you, I'm the managing director in some of the big companies.

"Even though I had built my house, bought a car and had money, I was not feeling fulfilled. So I had to go back to the university.

"I was only interested in business as a Kwahu indigene. At that point in time, in the early 1990s, I was one of the youngest entrepreneurs at Kingsway (now Swanzy Shopping Arcade). At the time, Heritage Towers and others had not been built,” and the Kingsway building was the place for many businesses, some offering critical services to the trading community, he told the vlogger.

The former Chief of Staff added that successful people like Sakyi Abankwa, Mr J.S Addo, Mr. Twum Boafo, Mr. Kan Dapaah were all operating from the Kingsway building at the time, as he was.

"I wasn’t known then. Then I met late President Mills and the rest is history," he reiterated.

Hon. Julius Debrah was speaking to the Kwahu Ambasaador vlogger after a meeting of the indigenes of Kwahu to launch a book on the renaissance of Kwahu.

The program attracted Kwahus from all spheres of life including those involved in politics and governance, commerce, tourism, real estate, and others.

The former Chief of Staff who joined his fellow compatriots for the book launch, then spent sometime speaking about the ways and means that the government can support efforts towards developing the tourism potentials of Kwahu and thereby transform the cool hilly towns into world class tourism hubs.