Dr. Osei Kwame Despite (CEO, Despite Group)

Dr. Kwame Osei Despite

A levelheaded businessman with a very good background in music production, he is well traveled and knows the broadcasting industry like the back of his palm. Interestingly, for one who owns a conglomerate of media houses, he is very media-shy. Born Osei Kwame in 1962 at Agona Wiamoase in the Ashanti region, but affectionately called ‘Kwame Despite’, he started life as a petty trader, dealing in music cassettes, padlocks, feeding bottles and other merchandise at Dunkwa-Offinso.

After years of painful struggle in the village to make it in life, he joined other friends to seek greener pastures in Lagos, Nigeria. He returned home to Ghana in 1983 with millions of other Ghanaian refugees who had been forced to flee Nigeria due to the political tension in the West African country. And guess what? He returned from Nigeria with only a chain-saw machine and a trident cassette player. He started a timber contracting business with the chain-saw machine but fate dealt a cruel hand on him when the machine was crushed by a falling tree on his first business trip.

Undeterred, he turned to his cassette selling trade until he resolved to solidify his vision to diversify his business. To demonstrate his singular support for the local music industry which was on a rapid decline then, and also put Ghanaian culture above all else, he went into radio and established the now famous PeaceFM in 1999 at Mile 7 Junction. The station’s experimentation with the Akan language worked to perfection as radio listeners in search of local content jettisoned stations which were broadcasting only in the Queen’s language for the 104.3 frequency. No doubt PeaceFM has endeared itself to the ordinary Ghanaian by bringing information to them in their mother tongue, a language they can relate to and understand. He also believed that the establishment of the radio station would not only educate Ghanaians, but offer an alternative channel for advertising and general marketing of goods and services.

By dint of hard work and the Grace of God, the radio business began to thrive culminating in the setting up of Hello FM in Kumasi and Okay FM in Accra and peacefmonline.com. Now the Despite Group of Companies (DGC) incorporated in the 1980’s with only one company, Despite Productions now Despite stores (Distributors of Audio and visuals cassette and CDs) has now evolved and is the parent company of the following: 3 commercial radio stations, U2 Company Limited (Iodated Salt Production), Neat Foods Company Limited (which produces and markets NEAT Fufu, NEAT Banku, NEAT Abenkwan, NEAT Hausa Koko, NEAT Diary Products). The latest addition to the family is the digital television station, United Television and Best Point Savings And Loans.

You are indeed a blessing to the world, We wish you Long Live and More Prosperity.