Use the 'hardcore' female sponsorship brokers if you want to stay in business – Ernest Kwesi to event organisers

“Relationship is very important” in securing sponsorship for events, Ernest Kwesi Ennin has asserted.

The music executive and managing director at Media Excel Production spoke on Accra-based Joy Prime with Roselyn Felli, Kpekpo Maxwell Justice (KMJ) and Kwame Dadzie.

He revealed that currently in Ghana, “we have hardcore ladies” who are go-betweens for event organisers and sponsors and “open doors for sponsorship”.

“If you don’t go through them, forget about it [sponsorship],” he stressed, comically adding: “They control the balls of all these…”

Ennin explained that these sponsorship brokers have “identified the needs of these companies and they have built stronger relationships with most of these top marketing executives”.

“They are [real]," he said, citing: "They can actually tell you that, ‘I can make this company give you US$10,000’ and it’s possible,”

He revealed that these women take “15 percent” of the sponsorships they secure “and that’s the job they also do”.

He noted “when you see” these mysterious female brokers, it is clear “they are living correct [well]”.

He said the female sponsorship brokers a “part of the industry” and “they are gatekeepers who are controlling the system”.

“I work with them,” Ennin also revealed, asserting that it is part of “working smart”.

In some instances, he cited, the women will request for a proposal, assuring you of sponsorship from a particular company and then ask: “How much will you give me out of what you get?”

Even though the popular event organiser warned his fellows against using men to seek out sponsorship, he underscored that some men have “also marshalled the confidence and they have the trust [of] the people” who are in positions of power to grant sponsorship.

In conclusion, Ernest Kwesi Ennin pointed out that these sponsorship brokers are so powerful they can successfully oppose the release of funds to an event organiser just by a phone call.