My media work has always been pro bono but ‘beneficial’ – Databank CEO

Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Databank Group, Kojo Addae-Mensah who is well known in the Ghanaian media fraternity for his role as a football pundit, has indicated his numerous media appearances have always been for free.

Kojo Addae-Mensah started working as a resource person in the media space way back in 2000 and still does so regardless of his super busy schedule as CEO.

Sharing his journey into the Ghanaian media space in an interview with Rev Erskine on Y 107.9 FM’s ‘Myd Morning Radio Show’, he said, “Some people think I am a Sports Journalist by training but that is not true”.

He indicated that in the 2000s, Herbert Mensah had moved to the Kotoko Football Club and “I bought into his ideas. When he later set up a newspaper, I started writing to his letters column and I spoke to his editor on him letting me write proper articles for the paper which he agreed”.

On his accord, along with the writing experience, he also got the chance to do media appearances on various radio and television stations in the country.

“I was being told I was speaking well and intelligently so I kept doing it. I have done the media work as pro bono like forever. I wrote for Kotoko from 2000 to 2014 and I didn’t take a dime and sometimes helped pay the debt of the newspaper. You know how the public sector works, sometimes GBC will insist you have to sign and take some money but you know you will use that money to help someone else. I have never earned any amount from media work”, he stated.

The Databank Group CEO revealed that after he assumed his current post, he had friends advising him against making any media appearances as a football pundit but, “I said it was time for me to increase it”.

He described the media as a powerful tool which has helped him, especially in his mainstream career and would encourage his son to get into the space.