Reflecting on the life and legacy of Richard Kojo Awuna Jonah On the first anniversary of his death
I had already finished the small pot of Earl Grey tea I had ordered and was wondering whether to order another, or if to wait for him first. It was just before 5 p.m. one Friday in 2006 and I was at Golden Tulip Accra’s Branche Lounge waiting to meet Richard Kojo Awuna Jonah for the first time.
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I had imagined Richard would be ill-mannered and pompous, with a massive sense of entitlement and an ego to match. I could think of at least one person I thought he would be like. After all, his father was THE Sam Jonah, one of Africa’s most successful businessmen.
Richard had been educated at the exclusive $50,000 a year Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, England, and the $62,000 a year liberal arts Haveford College in Pennsylvania, United States. He had cut his teeth in two storied investment banking firms - NM Rothschild & Sons and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. He’d met Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace and the Asantehene at Manhyia.
He was on the iconic New York Stock Exchange balcony the day Ashanti Goldfields Limited was listed. Given all of this, I might even have forgiven Richard had he fit the image I had of him.
My assumptions about Richard Jonah couldn’t have been furthest from the truth. The first thing that struck me was his humility and politeness. Although only a few minutes late for our meeting, he called twice to update me and apologised profusely when he arrived. Richard continued to impress with his humility each time I met him.
Rather than entitlement, Richard felt a strong sense of obligation to chart his own path and to make a lasting contribution to Africa and its people.
Given the low profile he kept, it is not surprising that only a few people realise that Richard Jonah was a successful entrepreneur in his own right.
In 2002, at the age of 26, he founded Freedom NetCentres, a company that pioneered investment in public internet cafes and provided affordable internet and computer access as well as training and adult literacy programmes to previously disadvantaged South Africans working with the South African Government.
It was Richard (together with his cousin Fidel) who in 2007 founded Jonah Capital, the private equity firm that invests in mining and mineral resources across eight African countries.
At the time, his father was a full time employee as President and Chief Executive Officer of AngloGoldAshanti. It is impressive, a rare case of opportunity flowing backwards across the generations, that through Jonah Capital, Richard was able to offer employment to Sir Sam Jonah when he retired from AngloGold. In my extensive research on Ghanaian entrepreneurs, I haven’t come across many young people who have been able to do something like this.
Like other successful entrepreneurs, Richard was a dreamer; a dreamer who believed in the beauty of his dreams and took steps to realise those dreams. His favourite saying was ‘“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. And small minds discuss people.” Consistent with this saying, he focused a significant amount of his time and energy brainstorming, developing ideas, discussing and implementing them. He worked hard, pouring heart and soul to make his ideas come to light.
Mobus Properties Limited, the real estate company he started in 2007, has quickly established itself as a developer of distinction, having won several awards at the Africa Property Awards. Mobus has now expanded to Abuja, Nigeria, where it is developing middle-income homes on 475 hectares of land. With each project, Richard pushed the envelope – creating the best spatial experience for his tenants with cutting edge designs and materials.
Richard’s privileged pedigree obviously helped, but what was it about him as an individual that made him such a quick fire business success? He valued and nurtured relationships. He took a keen interest in, and was able to get along with people from all walks of life and socio-economic groups and connected just as easily with the waakye seller as he did with the minister of state.
His successes at Mobus and Jonah Capital were in part due to his willingness to develop partnerships for mutual gain. He invested significant energy and time in nurturing his team and never failed to treat his secretaries on Secretaries’ Day or on their birthdays. He created a culture of commitment to personal success in each of his companies.
An eternal optimist, he infected his team and those around him with self-confidence, hope and faith in the future no matter what challenges they encountered. In many situations where someone else might have felt disappointed or given up, Richard would say ‘Egobee’ (It will be well) and carry on. For him, ‘NO’ meant ‘next opportunity’.
If Richard had a fault, it was his unhealthy appetite for hard work. He was so driven and consumed by the many projects he regularly had on the go that he didn’t make enough time for himself to rest. In addition to Mobus and Jonah Capital, Richard sat on the boards of several companies, including Cape Concentrate, African Energy (Botswana) Pty and Andulela Investment Holding Group. He was regularly on the move and on the plane.
His time on the board of Metropolitan Insurance overlapped mine and I was always impressed by the fresh perspective he brought to discussions. Richard was wise beyond his years and had an ability to rationalise issues and give wise counsel.
He kept an open mind and would gladly give anybody an opportunity. He was everyone’s sounding board – right from university where in his first year he was appointed counsellor to students, many of whom were older than him.
The following Chinese proverb is true also for many wealthy Ghanaian families: ‘The first generation works hard to build the family’s fortunes, the second generation reaps the benefits and the third generation squanders the wealth.’ As a third generation Jonah, Richard Jonah could legitimately have sat back to ‘chop’ what his grandfather had started and his father had built on. Yet he didn’t. Instead, he sought to enhance what they had done and in doing so built an enduring legacy.
It is with great affection that I remember him and reflect on his legacy.
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• Elikem is the author of Kuenyehia On Entrepreneurship [logo for Kuenyehia on Entrepreneurship], which is considered a ground-breaking resource on Ghanaian entrepreneurship. Follow him on twitter @elikemkuenyehia