Mfantsipim School has its foundation in the Methodist Church, and for decades, every single headmaster was an ordained priest. The leadership and guidance of the clergy have played a significant role in the education of thousands of boys who attended the school. And so it also makes sense that the school would produce impactful men of the cloth, like the late great Rev Gaddiel Acquaah. And from that line of impressive clergy men comes Rev. Albert Ocran.
Albert entered Mfantsipim in 1979 and was in Sarbah-Picot. He graduated in 1986 and entered the University of Ghana at Legon. He graduated with a degree in Economics with Sociology in 1990. He later obtained an MBA from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in 2002.
Shortly after graduating from Legon, Albert, together with his wife Comfort, founded a printing and publishing business called Combert Impressions. After a decade of running this business, their shared passion for human capital development began to redefine their interests.
The couple initiated a personal development Road Show to mentor young people in January 2007. This had them traveling across the country with a contingent of accomplished Ghanaians speaking to young people and encouraging them to reach for their dreams and aspirations. The sessions included free workshops where participants were trained in skills like CV writing, business planning, talent development, public speaking and preparing for interviews. This roadshow is still held annually. Within four years, the Road Show had gone nationwide and been extended to Gambia and Nigeria. In 2011, the couple set up the Springboard Road Show Foundation to enable more young people to freely benefit from their diverse initiatives.
For the past 18 years, Albert has hosted “Springboard, Your Virtual University” on Joy FM, Joy News and other digital platforms. This educational and empowering show educates its audience and helps them improve their leadership and professional skills.
In 2013, Albert responded to the call to be ordained as a Reverend Minister. He first served as Executive pastor at the ICGC Christ Temple for ten years. In March 2023, he became Senior Pastor at the ICGC The New Wine Temple at East Legon, Accra, a position from which he has an even greater opportunity to win souls and shape the human development of the nation’s youth.
By combing his pastoral duties with his love for human capital development, he is not only developing souls for the afterlife but helping them to live better lives in this one, too. He has continued writing, publishing about 26 books with his wife, Comfort.
With books like “Snakes and Ladders: Entrapments and enablers on the complex journey of life, 2019”, “Sheba – Ancient Customer Service Secrets Repackaged In A Social-Media Driven Era (Biblical Economics Series Book 5), 2013”, and “The Lord, Madiba & The Eagle“ by Albert & Comfort Ocran, 2010”, Albert showed his penchant to find wisdom not only in the Bible but in the lives of courageous and accomplished leaders. And this penchant reflects in his sermons, speeches, and workshops.
During the COVID pandemic, Albert and Comfort managed the CoRe Program in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and Solidaridad. The program used an integrated e-learning, e-mentoring and e-counselling approach to equip over 23 million young Ghanaians with resilience to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Springboard’s most recent intervention is the Ghana Grows Program, a partnership with the Mastercard Foundation that has helped over half a million young people to explore opportunities in the Agricultural and related Vocational Sectors.
Albert is a Fellow of the respected Aspen Global Leaders Network based in Colorado, USA, and the Africa Leadership Initiative West Africa (ALIWA). He was voted as Ghana’s 7th Most Respected CEO for 2009 and also received the Millennium Excellence Award for Motivation in 2010. For four consecutive years, he has appeared on ETV Ghana’s list of the 100 most influential Ghanaians. He also won the Exclusive Man of the Year Africa Award for 2018 in the Mentorship Category, among other awards.
On any day, Albert will be found serving people through mentoring, counselling or speaking sessions. After three decades, he doesn’t seem to have lost steam on this mission. If anything, he always seems to find a way of reinventing it. The thousands of testimonies from lives touched and volumes of impact stories published are a testament to the spirit of sacrifice, humility and service to humanity.
In all he does, that spirit of excellence, duty, and service that is taught on the Kwabotwe Hill is evident. Albert more than embodies the thoughtfulness and foresight preached by Mensah Sarbah.
Rev. Albert Ocran is an illustrious son of Mfantsipim, a Botwe boy.