Ohene Kwame Frimpong: The salt of Asante Akyem Agogo

Having been born and raised in Asante Akyem Agogo, he experienced firsthand all the difficulties of living in a small town so when he finally attained a position where he could help, entrepreneur Ohene Kwame Frimpong didn’t think twice about going back to the place where his umbilical cord was cut.

After careful thought, the 36-year-old, who owns The New Grace restaurant in the US city of Chicago, settled on media and established Salt Media GH, which has
Salt 95.9 FM, Salt TV and saltfmonline.com, a year ago.

According to him, he decided to go that route because he realised one of the most important things people needed was a medium to educate and entertain them.

“Asante Akyem Agogo is my birth town. My mother, my siblings and all my family are there and the community is so dear to my heart. When I thought about what I could do for my town, I realised we lacked a media entity and I decided to fill that gap.

“That way, I can continue my commitment to various developmental projects in the area and surrounding communities. My brother, known as Kofi Oppong also owns a business there and we are contributing to the development of the town. Hopefully, other business-minded indigenes will join us to develop our hometown to compete with Accra and Kumasi,” he told Graphic Showbiz recently.

He continued, “My dream is to make the town compete with Accra. Recently, the Omanhene of the Asante Akyem Agogo Traditional Area, Nana Akuoko Sarpong, honoured me at his 45th anniversary celebrations and it is a great feeling that I have other people who see my vision. The people have received us so well and we say thank you to the chiefs and leaders of Agogo.”

Ohene, who had been shuffling between Ghana and the US for year and relocated to Chicago two years ago after the death of father, noted that he is a happy man looking at the impact Salt 95.9FM is having on the people of Agogo.

“Sometimes, we think people living in these places do not deserve what others in the capital are enjoying. I want to change that narrative. Salt FM has brought a great
deal of attention to Agogo and that was an objective we set out to achieve.”

Speaking on the current media environment and content, he said the only thing fighting content on traditional media is social media. “The media has grown but the competition from social media is fierce. Running a media business in Ghana is no joke. It involves a lot and getting returns on those investments is almost impossible but we still have hope.”

Apart from the establishment of a media entity, Mr Ohene is also known for his charitable works in the Agogo township and says he is someone who doesn’t get tired
of giving.

“Before the end of 2020, our studio at Asante Akyem Agogo meant to be used for Salt FM got destroyed by fire. The same day, the fire consumed my studio, and we lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of brand-new equipment, I marched my team to the Agogo Hospital to donate to patients who could not afford to pay their bills.

“It shocked a lot of people but that tells you a bit of my motivation for giving. I do charity because my soul loves to give and it brings me peace. There’s a blessing in giving, that’s what the Bible says. For the last three years, I have donated to over 2,000 widows every January 1 and this year we did it, Charity is part of me. I do it every day,” he said.

While he seems like someone who may have little worries in his life, Ohene said the passing of his father two years ago has got to be the worst phase of his life.

“My dad, Mr Smart Frimpong’s passing got to me, it was difficult for me. My father played a major role in me setting up the radio station so he not being alive to see it
today disturbed and still disturbs me. My dad was one of the reasons I couldn’t relocate to the States untill he passed.”

Ohene Kwame Frimpong studied Travel and Tourism at CONEL college in North London and his father, Mr. Smart Kwadwo Frimpong was a guitarist who used to play
with Highlife musician Abrantie Amakye Dede.

He mentioned, trust, humility and obedience as some of the principles he lives by.

“Apart from trust, humility and obedience, I listen to my instinct a lot and the decisions I take are all based on what my instincts tell me.

“I believe God speaks to my soul and I make those decisions based on faith. Anytime I’m in Ghana, I go to pay homage to my godfather the National Chief Imam. I’m passionate about the welfare of the youth and vulnerable women, especially the aged.”

On what the future holds, Ohene said, “We are doing what we can and praying that God will grant us favour and health to do more.

The media conglomerate that we have established is a journey we want to expand across the world in
the future. “Now that I have established this in my town and given the people there the needed light that they deserve, we have serious plans of expanding our media activities to Accra.

“At the moment, we operate our news website saltfmonline.com from Accra so we are working. We thank the people of Agogo for their warm reception, together we will win.”