Annual fundraiser inches MOBA-USA closer to $1M Endowment Fund

An amount of about $35,000 in cash and over $150,000 in pledges was realized at the annual convention of Mfantsipim Old Boys Association in the United States (MOBA-USA). These amounts were raised during the MOBA-USA annual dinner-dance and fundraiser held May 26, 2018, at Martins Crosswinds in Maryland (MD).

Mfantsipim is a Methodist Secondary School located in Cape Coast, Ghana. It’s the first ever secondary school established in the then Gold Coast (now Ghana). Nicknamed ‘Kwabotwe’, the school came to being on April 3, 1876. MOBA-USA is a registered 501 C3 alumni network charity of the school in the US that aims to leverage their network to maintain the founding legacy of the school for the future and benefit of humanity.

“Our overall goal is for MOBA-USA to raise $100k this year out of which the targeted objective is $1M in a decade for an endowment fund,” said MOBA-USA Organizing Secretary Dominic Osei Agyepong (MOBA ’93) to TheAfricanDream.net in an interview during the annual dinner-dance, the first of which was held last year.

MOBA-USA President Pratt Abrokwa (MOBA ’86) said this year’s theme for the 3-day event chaired by the Synod Secretary for the North America Mission Diocese of the Methodist Church of Ghana — Rev. Dr. Casely Essamuah (MOBA 81) — was ‘Re-Engineering For Success‘. Mr. Abrokwa told TheAfricanDream.net that “our priority this year is the MOBA Endowment Fund (MEF), as Dominic said, we plan to raise the needed money to be invested here in the US as seed money.

“These amounts raised tonight are encouraging, given that this is just our 2nd year doing this. We however remain confident in the fact we will be able to hit our ultimate target of $1M in a decade. We want to help not just with infrastructural projects within the school, but to ultimately free the school of dependence on the Ghana Education Service. Only interests from the MEF will be used to finance and maintain MOBA initiated projects at the school,” said an optimistic Mr. Abrokwa.

MOBA regulations’ ‘Article 46‘ mandates the establishment of an Endowment Fund which’s seed money shall not be touched but used as an anchor to grow funds over time. Only a portion of interests accrued from the invested funds (not principal) will be used on an annual basis for projects approved by MOBA. Get more details about the MOBA Endowment Fund by clicking on this link.

Keynote speaker Kojo Siaw Ofori-Atta of MOBA ’82 asked the Board of Trustees for the MEF to prioritize and embark on an honest assessment of factors militating against the school’s progress. “This assessment should be wide-ranging, from Management, Academics, Student Life, Culture, Resources, and Counseling,” as Ofori-Atta believes this will form the basis for the school to re-engineer itself for success.

MOBA National head ‘Ebusuapayin‘ Capt. Paul Forjoe could not attend the event this year and so was represented by Mr. James A. Morgan who flew to the event from Ghana. The oldest MOBA in attendance was 99yr old Charles H. Bartels of MOBA 1938 who becomes a Centenarian in October 2018. Currently, the Headmaster of the school is Mr. Manfred Barton Oduro, himself a MOBA ’77 alumnus.

The dinner, which highlighted day-2 activities of the 3-day event (day-1 was mostly for networking and records night) was preceded in the day by a round-table brunch session at Cape Coast Cuisine in Beltsville, MD. A joint family picnic and games closed out the conference on day-3 (Sunday, May 28) that saw the Kwabotwe boys win at both golf and draft board games by beating old students of Adisadel College Ghana (ADISCO). Adisadel however bounced back to win the MOBA-ADISCO soccer match.

Over 200 old students, friends, and sympathizers attended the MOBA-USA conference. Visit mobausa.org for more information about the nonprofit. Some notable old boys today include Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Peter Bossman -- first black Mayor of Piran in Slovenia.