ID: 10897873

COURSE: PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT

GROUP 4

A LEADER I ADMIRE AND THE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND SKILS HE HAS.

Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi, founder and CEO of Danpong Groups and Danadams and the president of
Association of Ghana Industries, is an inspired entrepreneur and committed proponent of African
manufacturing. Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi holds a doctorate in pharmacy from Mercer university in
Atlanta, Georgia and is a fellow of the west African college of postgraduate pharmacist and the
Ghana college of pharmacist. He also has an executive MBA degree from the Ghana institute of
management and public administration and obtained two bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and
mathematics from Clark Atlanta university in Atlanta, Georgia. In Ghana, he attended konongo-
odumasi and Opoku Ware secondary school where he obtained G.C.E ‘O’ and ‘A’ level
certificates, respectively. All these academic achievements were awarded in a day, he worked
hard to get here, and this is one of his admirable personality traits, a man known for his hard
work and dedication.

Dr yaw Adu Gyamfi is a man of vision, a great sense of growth and development and a great
entrepreneur. His starting point for Danpong groups was the opening of a retail pharmacy at a
time where there was scarcity of quality medicine on the market. His goal was to get high
quality, generic pharmaceuticals into the country to treat simple diseases, infection and
malnutrition. Then he opened two main retail pharmacy shops in Kumasi and Accra in 1999 and
there he started to grow and become wholesale and it can be agreed today that Danpong and
Danadams is one of the enviable private industries in Ghana. He has an entrepreneurial spirit. He
has a great vision for a better Ghana in terms of health and medicine. At that time, not only was
importing for his own shop, but also supplied to other pharmacies. He moved into manufacturing
in 2000 and that is where he setup a subsidiary called Danadams pharmaceuticals Ltd. Dr Adu
Gyamfi saw an opportunity, visualized the opportunity for long term gains. He took the risk of
starting it all in 1999, defied the odds and uncertainties and established a startup company, and
today his dedication has brought it this far and Danpong and Danadams is what we know it to be
now. He is strategic and a great critical thinker. Danadams focused on the production of anti-
retroviral drugs used to treat HIV patients and they produced their first anti-retroviral drug in
ID: 10897873

COURSE: PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT

GROUP 4

A LEADER I ADMIRE AND THE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND SKILS HE HAS.

2005 and he realized the country cannot continue to import generic drugs because of foreign
imbalance. By bringing in raw materials and producing locally, his company would create jobs
and value in the country. By employing 275 people, he was able to create job opportunities for
others as well as.

Dr Adu Gyamfi is goal oriented and a good planner, after all these he wanted to achieve more
from the level of operating the pharmacies, producing and supplying medicines and exploring
options for community development. He decided to setup a community clinic and opened the
Danpong clinic, where today they see to about 3000 patients a month. He established a medical
laboratory with diagnostic capabilities, including CT scanners, ultrasound and radiology. He
capitalized the huge potential for manufacturing and exploiting pharmaceuticals from Ghana
throughout the regional market. The company had been exporting since 2009 and there was
considerable potential for expansions. When he started producing anti-retroviral drugs, he looked
to francophone countries as potential markets, he got his product registered and submitted his
samples for French approval and now he supplies to at least six countries namely, Togo, Burkina
Faso, Gambia, Benin, cote d’Ivoire and now he is targeting the Nigerian market.

Dr Adu Gyamfi is very courageous and outspoken. He acknowledges that the engine of growth
in any country is the private sector and that our pharmaceutical sector could be buoyant and help
Ghana’s economy, especially as none of the francophone countries have much pharmaceutical
manufacturing capacity. He urges the government to support this sector for exporting rather than
depending on gold, cocoa and bauxite for export revenues. Developing sustainable companies
makes more sense, people will always need medicine and there will always be a need for
healthcare, 70% of Ghana’s drug consumption currently comes from India and China so we
should build up our own market to meet local demand and to build exports.

Dr Adu Gyamfi is passionate about the youth and their education, he believes in talking to,
educating and inspiring children through school visits and sharing their own success stories.
ID: 10897873

COURSE: PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT

GROUP 4

A LEADER I ADMIRE AND THE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND SKILS HE HAS.

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