Meet Kofi Anokye; the great thinker and innovationist being ignored
Kofi Anokye is a Licensed Builder in the US and the UK and has sold and rented out countless houses.
Three years ago, during the hay days of dumsor, I was listening to Okay FMs flagship program Adea Akyi Ebia and heard of the name Mr Kofi Anokye.
This was during an interview with the host of the program to respond to report by various presses that he had a solution to get the Akosombo Dam running at full capacity.
As with the usual prejudicial mentality of the typical Ghanaian, I was like “another attention seeker is out there to waste our time in the name of fame”.
I definitely would have taken him more seriously if he was a white-man and I have pure conviction that state actors would have done same if he isn’t a Ghanaian.
Unfortunately he is Kofi Anokye and not Mark Chimmery or Shin Chon Yon.
The major reason for Ghana’s worse ever power crises was due to inadequate water supply to the Akosombo Dam to power all the six turbines.
Over the years, we joked about the need for every Ghanaian to fetch a bucket of water to get the Dam full. It was a ridiculous joke meant to ease tension in typical Ghanaian fashion but made some sense because all that the Dam needed was enough water supply. The only problem is that it was impossible for every Ghanaian to fetch one bucket of water into the Dam.
Then emerged Mr Kofi Anokey, CEO of Koans Building Solutions with his idea of getting water behind the Akosombo Dam to make the Dam operate at full capacity through the use of pressure pumps and pipes. It sounded ridiculous until I got close to him for further explanation.
From my position as a layman, I was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that his idea could be the way out of Dum Sor.
However, to clear my doubts, I spoke to a number of Engineers within and outside VRA. 3 out of 5 engineers I spoke to from VRA admitted that it was worth further study because the idea made sense.
Recently in an interview with Kwame Safa Kai, he said that after further study on the cost of getting water behind the Dam, he will be able to do the project at a cost of 50 million dollars per turbine.
Each Turbine produces 170MW energy. Comparing that to Ameri which gives 250MW at half a billion Dollar, the 50 million price he quoted made sense. As a matter of fact, he was even willing to raise funds to do the project, operate and transfer to the state at a little higher the cost if government is sceptical about the idea.
Recently, our President cut the sod for a new power plant dealt with General Electric that will add 400MW to the general grid at a cost of a billion dollar.
My point is that in this age when countries such as US, China, Canada and host of nations are moving into renewable hydro through the PSPP technology, Ghana with brains like Kofi Anokye are still focussed on the use of foster fuel powered plant to produce energy at a very high cost.
Since 19284 when the Dam suffered from inadequate water supply due to the drought, all that we have done as a nation is to use plants and synchronized generators.
I believe that governance should be about collating ideas and perfecting those ideas to give us a direction towards development and to solve problems
Kofi Anokye is one of such people who has demonstrated that he is on top of our energy issues and needs to be taken seriously.
If not for nothing at all, his exploits as a private business man and innovations attributed to him in the Real Estate Sphere should bind on us as a people and state actors to take him more seriously.
Kofi Anokye may be one of many Ghanaians with great ideas who are not being given a look and see substandard white get paraded before the media us our saviours. Most of our problems persist because the solutions do not emanate from the people.
Who is this Kofoi Anokye?
The rise of Kofi Anokye is a story that should motivate the downtrodden and encourage every small starter that with hard work, he can make it to the top.
This is the story of Mr Kofi Anokye
Kofi Anokye is the Chief Executive Officer of Koans Group of Companies. His a professional Engineer and a Building Consultant from the premier Polytechnic in Ghana- Accra Polytechnic Institute with HND in Building and Engineering Technology. He Holds B. Sc and MBA in Operations and Project Management from The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration- GIMPA. He hold a Degree in Law from the same institutions.
He attended SDA Preparatory School at Agona Kwenyaako for his basic education, moved to Nsabaa Presbyterian Secondary after passing his common entrance examination where he completed his Sixth Form.
He was born on the 29th of May 1973 at Agona Kwenyaako in the Central Region of Ghana
Career
Kofi Anokye’s childhood dream was to become a medical doctor in future until he realised his allergy for the sight of blood and worse of all contact with it.
He therefore decided to go into Engineering which is also a prominent career of choice for science student anywhere.
He however discovered his interest in designing and building houses through a mason who was his co tenant. This mason, though illiterate got a lot of contract to build for people but he will always take the money, squander it and fail to deliver on the terms of contract.
Given his limitations by way of education, he relied on Kofi Anokye to prepare his estimate and bargain for the workmanship whenever he was tasked to build for someone. Given Kofi Anokye role, he was often interrogated and called to witness whenever his friend defaulted because he usually signed as his witness.
Despite never getting a penny for his role in any of the contracts, Kofi Anokye always had to answer or testify when the mason failed to deliver.
This ignited his passion for building houses and contributed to his decision to go into construction business
Koans Building Solutions begun as small construction firm that focused on building residential facilities for individuals and corporate organisations
The quality of service delivered paved the way for many individuals to engage the company.
Fifteen years down the line, the company can boast of three complete Estate sites in Pokuase- ACP, Kuntuse and Okanata, just after Nsaweb on the Accra/Kumasi road.
Koans Building Solutions is the fastest growing real estate company in Ghana credited with over thousand apartment buildings for all classes and categories of income.
Achievement
Kofi Anokye is credited with the discovery of bamboo as strong enough to replace iron rods as reinforcement in building. He used this technology until institutions in USA confirmed this at the Ghana institute of Engineers that the bamboo in Ghana forest had the same tensile strength as the traditional iron rod. Today, most real estate agencies have adopted this technology.
Kofi Anokye introduced the concept of using multiple boreholes to supply water for an entire estate. He personally schooled all the major Real Estate Companies about the idea. Until this, Estate Agencies spent huge amount of money buying water from Kpong and other areas to build and supply their tenants. As a matter of fact, no Koans Estate site is connected to the National Grid for water supply.
Awards
His company: Koans Building Solutions has received virtually every single Ghanaian based award for the Real Estate Industry. In 2015, he was honoured by the World Business Assembly at the Golden European Awards for his contribution to the Real Estate Sphere in Africa. .
Kofi Anokye is a Licensed Builder in the US and the UK and has sold and rented out countless apartments.
He is a senior member of GREDA.
My point
Such a person has earned the right to be taken serious.
By: Isaac Kyei Andoh
[email protected]
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