‘Knowing Christ has been my secret’ — DANADAMS CEO

But for the generosity of the late Mrs Efua Sarpong, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the DANADAMS Group of Companies Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi would have easily joined the league of brilliant needy school dropouts in the system

Dr Gyamfi, whose entrepreneurial acumen has served as a source of livelihood to over 250 people, wrote and passed the then common entrance exam on four consecutive times but could not proceed to the next level because his mother with nine boys could not fund the cost of his entry into the secondary school.

But that was not strange, said Dr Gyamfi, who reminisced his tough childhood days to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS amidst smiles.

"My mother had nine boys of which I am the eldest. Things were difficult for us and that was obvious because she had to take care of all of us; our education, feeding and the rest and that wasn't easy," he recollected.

That consequently delayed, but not denied, his progress by some four good years within which his mother, the eight brothers and himself continued to aspire while hoping that a window of opportunity would open for them one day.

It was frustrating as well as discouraging, admits Dr Gyamfi, whose DANADAMS Pharmaceuticals currently exports drugs to six West African countries.

But God's ways are not the ways of men. Therefore, when Dr Gyamfi started giving up amidst anguish, God sent a benefactor in the person of Mrs Sarpong.

Mrs Sarpong, who was a friend to Dr Gyamfi's late mother, Maame Abena Adansi, offered to take up the cost of his entry into the secondary school after he had passed the common entrance exam for the fourth time in 1970.

The arrival of that opportunity marked the beginning of the success story of Dr Gyamfi, pharmacist now turned entrepreneur.

"I wouldn't have been anybody today without those two women. They made me who I am and I will forever cherish them," Dr Gyamfi said graciously.

The two, he said have continued to be the pillar of his life and the inspirations behind the establishment of his first business, the Danpong Pharmacy, at Spintex in Accra.
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