Joseph Siaw Agyepong, popularly known as ‘Jospong’, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the eponymous Jospong Group of Companies. Described as a serial entrepreneur with an inclination for recognizing business opportunities across varying plains and sectors, he currently owns over sixty companies.
Joseph was born on March 20, 1971, in Assin-Amoabeng in the Central Region of Ghana. Being the fifth child of seventeen children, he was fondly called Felix by his trader mother. However, his father changed his name to Joseph after seeing him for the first time during his primary school days. According to Dr Agyepong, his father argued that it is an African tradition for the man to name his child and not the woman. Having had his primary and middle school education at the Teshie Nungua Preparatory School, he later progressed to the Royal Technical Institute at Nungua to pursue his City and Guilds of London Certificate course which he successfully completed in 1990, graduating with an Electrical Engineering Technician (Part II) certificate.
Growing up, he had to commute between his village and the capital, Accra for his education. Quite early in his life, his desire was to become a pilot or Marine Engineer. As such took steps to pursue a Diploma programme at the Accra Polytechnic, after completing his technical education, to enable him to achieve his ambition. Also at a point, he picked up an application form from the Ghana Nautical College. However, his dream was short-lived as a result of his family’s financial misfortunes. Thus, he moved to Accra to mind his mother’s stationery business due to her ill health.
Taking on the new assignment, he invested his soul into the business and successfully grew it to the surprise of all. Joseph’s father realizing the simmering knack his son had for business subsequently urged him to dedicate himself to it. With such vote of confidence, Joseph in 1995 reinvested his profit from the stationery business with additional support from his mother and established a printing press called Jospong Printing Press in a small room at Jamestown. His mother’s unfortunate demise set him on a new path to fulfil an entrepreneurial dream. The printing press, however, served as a launching pad to propel him to greater heights in his entrepreneurial journey.
In subsequent years, Mr. Agyepong by dint of pure instincts and proactiveness found himself piloting a construction contract from a client who was in dire need of a contractor and not having prior knowledge or experience in that arena did nothing to deter him. Due to his genuine resourcefulness and wits, he took on the contract by outsourcing the various building projects to indigenous experts and the success of the venture led him to establish his construction firm, Extended Builders.
Right in the thick of Ghana’s general elections in 1998, Jospong yet again struck gold by identifying an opportunity in printing party paraphernalia for some political parties. This brainchild led to the birth of Appointed Time Screen Printing.
One of the country’s weaknesses has always been the improper disposal and management of waste. Realizing its impact on the economy, Mr Agyepong in 2006, strapped with his engineering background, brought on an ingenious idea of a tricycle concept in waste management he borrowed from China. Using the innovation to address the waste issue, he established Zoomlion in the process to manage waste in the country. With a bank loan of GHC30,000 ($6,800), Zoomlion began its expansion. Starting with 1,000 tricycles, the company currently has 15,000 and 30,000 motorized and manual tricycles respectively, with a fleet of waste management trucks as well. The company also has a combined core staff of 3,000 and manages over 85,000 workers under various forms of Public Private Partnerships (PPP). Currently, the flagship company Zoomlion Ghana Limited is a leader in the waste management industry both locally and internationally. Being one of the most expanded organizations in Ghana, Zoomlion has operations in other African countries and Asia. Zoomlion currently has operations in Togo, Angola, Zambia and Equatorial Guinea and Liberia.
The Group, Jospong Group of Companies, has interest in about 14 sectors of the economy with its biggest operations in waste management, ICT, banking, automobile and equipment. Some of the subsidiary companies within the group include: Great Consolidated Diamond, C A Nzema Oil, J. A. Quarry, J A Plant Pool Limited, J A Vehicle Assembly Plant, Jubilee Tractors, J A Spare Parts, J S A Logistics, Royal Heritage, Contrago Trans, J W Transport Company Limited among others. Since the establishment of Zoomlion, Agyepong has created two to three companies every year. Investment and diversification are more important to him than comfort.
The foundation of Jospong’s success is solid-sure on the rock of his faith in God, which in his words, has propelled him to greater heights coupled with hard work, dedication and resilience.
His acts and sheer deeds have over the years been rewarded with a conferred Doctorate Degree for his immense contribution to capacity building in Waste and Environmental Sanitation by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). His authentic leadership and contribution to national and continental development have been duly recognized over the years by governments and other institutions. For these reasons, he has won several awards including “Lifetime African Achievement Prize” in Sustainable Development in Africa, “African Achievers Awards” in Business Innovation, “Order of the Star of Volta”– the highest award of the nation Ghana. Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong was also awarded “Man of The Year, Business (Magnate Award)” at the second edition of the Exclusive Men of The Year Awards in 2017.
Similarly, he is a member of the Governing Council of the Ghanaian Hungarian Business Council, a member of The Advisory Board of the Centre for African Studies of Harvard University, President of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) in Ghana, a Council member of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and a member of several other Boards.
