FIRST GHANAIAN GENERAL MANAGER, UNITED AFRICAN COMPANY, VOLUNTARY SOCIAL WORKER & DAD

Francis Isaac Andoh Jr. Dada. Born 1st May 1923 in Shama, you couldn’t have been born on any other day than Mayday.  I understand that you were a sickly child and spent the first years of your life battling one ailment or the other.  As a result, you were homeschooled but when you finally entered mainstream school  – the Methodist School in Tarkwa from 1929 to 1939, you excelled.  Thanks to your older cousin Dr. R.P. Baffour, you entered Achimota School in 1940 on a Cadbury scholarship and upon completion, chose to work at the then United Africa Company starting work on the 3rd of April 1944 where you were made a probationary manager.  Within three months you proved beyond doubt that you were capable. Some of your appraisals read as follows, “He has wasted no time in picking up the various duties that he has been made to pass through.  We think he will be a very good asses to the Company.”  You were consistently appraised as a “promising young man”.  By your superiors and recommended often for a larger increment than normal.

In 1956, you were transferred to Sekondi where you were instantly smitten by a young teacher, Josephine Brookman Amissah.   You were promoted to management status and soon gained popularity and respect from both superiors and subordinates.  You were described as “a first-class Sales Manager commanding respect and popular with his staff and customers.”

In 1956, you were sent to London on attachment to the Provisions department. On your return from London, you were appointed Assistant Manager Provisions Merchandising and shortly after transferred to Sekondi as provisions Sales Manager.  His manager wrote, “I have been most impressed with Mr. Andoh’s work since he returned from his attachment in London.  He is much more matured and has blossomed out into a very efficient Sales Manager.”  In 1957, you were included in the company’s “Special List,” which was kept to monitor the performance of young managers who showed potential.

You were so consistent and hardworking and after being confirmed as manager  in 1960, rose steadily in the organisation to become the first Ghanaian general manager of the UAC, in 1962 documented by an article in the cover of the Daily Graphic.   In that same year, you were appointed as a Director of UAC Ghana Limited.  You acted on a number of occasions as a Deputy Chairman of UAC when the substantive Deputy Chairman was away.

Upon receiving your Fellowship Award from the Ghana Institute of Management on the 17th of January 1986 this was part of the citation.

“It is most interesting to note that Francis Andoh Jnr. gained several ‘firsts’ in the many management positions that he held in the company.  In the UAC, he was a true executive, a doer, a builder, a mover and a shaker.  He initiated and expanded the industrial and commercial base of his company into the organisation we see today.  The UAC Group of Companies now represents an organisation of Ghanaian industries.”

In 1996 you accepted an appointment as Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry that probed the Ghana Supply Commission.  For many years you served on the Central Executive of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and was at one time its Vice President.  You also served on the Audit Board from 1969 to 1982 and on the Salary Review Commission from 1979 to 1982.

Upon retirement in 1978 you were a member of the Management Committee of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital and in 1985 you were made Chairman of the Hospital’s I.M.C.  The I.M.C. had the objective of making the hospital humane and client friendly.   He was also the  Deputy Executive Director of the Social Aid Guild from 1977 to 1999 as well as a Director for Crocodile Matchets (Ghana) Limited for thirty-two years.

Every organisation you served, you were made President or treasurer.  A great source of support to your younger brother, the late Archbishop Emeritus Dominic Kodwo Andoh, you served as the President of the parish pastoral council of the Holy Spirit Cathedral for a good number of years.  You chose to spend your Saturdays at the Psychiatric Hospital, visiting the poor and needy, cleaning up homes of the sick with the other members of St Vincent de Paul. Then you and your bestie Uncle Ben would sit down and have a few shots of whiskey and lots of laughs before the Saturday fufu lunch at home. Always generous. Once in a while we read the citation for your Order of the Volta given to you by your country.  You epitomised a balance of greatness and humility. Thank you for the seed of community awareness planted that I saw then and understand now. Thank you for the contentment that I saw then and understand now. You were never in a race with anyone. You didn’t need a lot to find joy. You never wanted more than you needed. And because of your kind hearts, God, your Jireh, always provided for you. Salut.

–  Franka