Ernest Bediako Sampong is the Chief Executive Officer of Ernest Chemists Limited, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the country. Representing some of the world’s leading Pharmaceutical brands by operating as an extensive network of distribution channels throughout the country, the industrious businessman has carved a name for himself which is bound to outlive him.
Being of Kwahu descent, Ernest at his mother’s knees, imbibed the practical culture of a typical Kwahu home where the children are trained on trading and business at an early age. With his dad being a pharmaceutical retailer himself, Ernest’s destiny and purpose was unravelled to him at a blossoming age without succumbing to the indecision which usually characterizes the future ambitions of young people. Recounting his early days in primary school, he would go to Accra and sell medicinal products such as APC, Paracetamol and Aspirin and other unrelated stash like paper bags to earn some cash.
The starting point of his entrepreneurial journey as steered by his father enabled him to acquire vast experience and discipline with money, which he needed later in life to build his future Pharmaceutical empire.
Completing his tertiary education at age 30, as an undergraduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ernest Bediako Sampong after having his education at the University truncated by students’ confrontation with the military government, remained undeterred by going back to the same University to pursue a pharmacy course.
Through his single-minded objective of establishing a pharmaceutical retail company which eventually transitioned into a dominant pharmaceutical products manufacturing company, he set up his first retail shop at Kaneshie. The shop later splintered into other retail outlets, paving way for a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Tema, which has resulted in the renowned brand in the business landscape.
In the late 1970’s, Mr. Sampong was confronted with the choice of buying a house and ploughing back his profit from the business. With the only alternative of moving in with his in-laws based on their insistence, the focused businessman opted for that in spite of ridicule from people who taunted him as being “cheap”. Unfazed by the backlash, Mr. Sampong was disciplined and reinvested the profit into his business, a decision he is still harvesting from today.
Between 1982 and 1983, Mr. Sampong started importing his own products and was always in Accra on Mondays to clear his goods. In 1986 during his national service at the pharmacy division of the Ministry of Health, he identified some opportunities there as the department he found himself in was responsible for issuing licenses and permits for importation. His position at the pharmacy division enabled him to make shrewd decision on what to import and avoid based on documentations and following of trends from companies importing the products. It also enabled him to gain much experience in the importation business, especially with regards to documentation and also suitable companies to import from.
Spurred to growth, Mr. Sarpong opened his second shop in Okaishie after encountering some boulders over his initial choice location around GNTC pharmacy which was the hotspot for pharmaceutical businesses. This was so because, other businessfolks felt threatened by his presence due to his smart business decisions. Rising against the tide of opposition, his good business practices and reputation, garnered over the four years in business, presented him with an opportunity of a lifetime which was a welcomed milestone for his fledgling business. This resulted to Mr. Sampong landing a business deal with some multinational pharmaceutical companies in Ghana in the early 1990s. The opportunity created a watershed moment for his company thereby introducing Ernest Chemists Limited to consumer-associated multinational businesses.
Banking on the company’s high standard of quality over the years, Mr. Sampong admits his visionary leadership and strategy have morphed the company from a one-sales outlet to a business entity with retail and wholesale shops across Ghana. Over the years, the astute businessman has been in close business relation with the likes of great multinational companies like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca, Roche, Novartis, Unilever (Europe), Danone, Avent (Philips), Johnson & Johnson, Merck. These companies served as either distributor, contract manufacturer or packagers of his products.
Prior to his shot to fame, Ernest Sampong encountered some challenges like all other great enterprises do with financing. Capital, according to him, was difficult to come by when he felt the time was apt for him to expand the company. The banks he approached required certain collaterals and securities he could not provide. This, coupled with the high interest rates and massive depreciation of the cedi to the dollar in 1998, caused an increase in the cost of importation of goods to Ghana. Prices of pharmaceutical products went sky-high and the principal business for Ernest Chemists was the importation of pharmaceutical products. And this led to the loss of market share as consumers within the lower economic bracket could not afford his products.
To ameliorate the situation, Management of the company decided to commence the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products in the country. So, in 2001, full scale manufacturing of pharmaceutical products by Ernest Chemists Limited begun and it’s been an upward ascendancy for the company ever since.
Charity has well painted a perfect picture of the soul and heart of Mr. Sampong who gives back to the society and people who have both overtly and implicitly helped in his success. His various societal interventions include his recent donations made to the COVID-19 Trust Fund set up by the President of Ghana and COVID-19 isolation facilities at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Tema General Hospital, Kwahu Atibie Hospital, Tamale Teaching Hospital, Volta Regional Health Directorate, and Margaret Marquart Catholic Hospital.
Gratifyingly, the discipline, fortitude, ingenuity and quick-wittedness of the indomitable entrepreneur has seen him being adjudged the ‘CEO of the Year (Pharmaceutical)’ at the Chief Executive Officers Network, Ghana. He also won the ‘Most Influential CEO in Ghana’ at the Ghana Pharma Awards, CIMG ‘Marketing Man of the Year’, and the Ghana Business Awards named him as the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’. Similarly, EMY Africa Awards sent him home as the ‘Man of the Year’ in 2020.
Concertedly, Mr. Sampong articulates the youth to brace challenges, remain credible and disciplined in their rise to success.
