Prince Kofi Amoabeng

Prince Kofi Amoabeng is one of the most recognisable entrepreneurs Ghana has produced, a former military officer who built a banking empire from a single room, and whose story has become a case study in both the promise and the peril of Ghanaian enterprise.

Early life and military career

He was born on 22 February 1952 in Bososo, in the Eastern Region. He was educated at Adisadel College and the University of Ghana before serving as an officer in the Ghana Armed Forces, leaving the military in 1982, a discipline and bearing that would mark his later business style.

Building UT

He founded Unique Trust Financial Services with a handful of employees, and grew it into UT Holdings, a group with subsidiaries across Ghana, Africa and Europe. He and his partner opened UT Bank in 1997 from a one-room office, and it became known for a bold, fast-moving approach to lending that reshaped the market.

Recognition and setback

He was repeatedly named among Ghana's most respected CEOs and received national honours. But UT Bank collapsed in 2017 during the country's banking crisis, and Amoabeng later faced legal proceedings over the bank's affairs, a dramatic reversal for one of the country's celebrated businessmen.

Standing

A motivational figure, author and speaker, Prince Kofi Amoabeng remains a prominent voice in Ghanaian business, his career a powerful illustration of entrepreneurial ambition and the hard lessons of the banking sector's turbulence.