In his speech at Academic City University on Saturday, June 7, 2025, internationally recognized Ghanaian business magnate Sir Sam Jonah presented a very personal and motivational message.
Sir Sam, the Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital, an equity fund based in Johannesburg, South Africa, drew on his modest beginnings as a laborer in the demanding environment of the Obuasi gold mines to urge future leaders to identify and dedicate themselves to their personal purpose. He claimed that true leadership is derived from a clear sense of mission rather than from position or title.
“When I began my own journey, it wasn’t glamorous at all. I was a labourer in the Obuasi mines,” the Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) recalled, describing in detail his beginnings in one of the biggest and oldest gold mines in Africa, which has made a substantial economic contribution to Ghana since its founding in 1897 but has historically had difficult working conditions for its employees.
“But even then, I knew one thing: I wanted to matter. I wanted to make a difference,” the former Chief Executive Officer of AngloGold Ashanti said in his commencement address to the graduating class of the private university.
That formative experience, he explained, instilled an invaluable lesson: “Leadership is not a position. It is a disposition. A way of thinking, acting, and serving with clarity and conviction.”
His notion that every decision should be in line with one’s ultimate goal was influenced by his early exposure to the harsh realities of the mining industry, which at its height employed thousands of Ghanaians and significantly increased the country’s GDP.
Sir Sam emphasised that the foundation of his motivation, optimism, and involvement was finding and concentrating on his purpose.
“I wasn’t just working to make a living; I was serving to uplift and enrich lives,” he stated, a philosophy that guided his remarkable ascent within the predominantly European-owned and -managed mining sector.
NKONKONSA.com
