In the long and rich history of Mfantsipim are stories of successful entrepreneurs who not only helped found the school but also came to its financial rescue several times in the early decades. Men like Jacob Wilson Sey, John Mensah Sarbah, J.W. DeGraft-Johnsom, and W.E. Sam, among others, placed as much emphasis on philanthropy as they did on the creation of wealth. They gave of themselves and their wealth to improve the nation as a whole and the communities they lived in, locally. They believed in giving back.
From this long line of entrepreneurs and philanthropists comes Alex Apau Dadey, a distinguished Ghanaian entrepreneur, corporate strategist, and business statesman, and the Executive Chairman of KGL Group, an entity he founded. He is widely recognized as one of the leading voices in the rise of modern indigenous African enterprise.
Alex was in Mfantsipim from 1974 to 1979. He was in Bartels-Sneath. Besides academics, he was a star athlete while on the Hill. In Form One, he won the Giant race. He would go on to represent the school in 100m, 200m, and 400m races.
After 6th form, Alex entered the University of Ghana, Legon. He graduated from their School of Administration (now UG Business School) in 1986, and left for the UK that same year.
Over the first 15 years in the UK, Alex worked for Gordon Richman Textiles Limited. He steadily moved up the ranks from Export Sales Supervisor to Export Sales Director and oversaw important accounts in 10 countries across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Even in those years, Alex kept an eye on the business scene in Ghana. From the example of a mother who traded to supplement household income, and from Ghanaian entrepreneurs of the 1970s like Joshua Kwabena Siaw of Tata Brewery and R.A. Darko of Mechanical Lloyd, he had always dreamt of becoming an entrepreneur and saw himself returning home one day to start a business.
In 2001, he acquired the backing from DCD Finance Group PLC to start Qualitexx Limited. For the next 17 years, he actively financed ventures in Ghana and other African countries as well as in the UK. He also encouraged Ghanaian diasporians to invest in the country.
Ever conscious of the dream of returning home to Ghana to start a business venture, he did just that in 2018. On his return, due to the role he had played in getting diasporans to invest in the country, he was named a member of the Governing Board of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC). He was named Chairman of the Board in 2021, a position he held until the end of 2024.
Even as he worked with GIPC to get investments into the country, he founded the KGL Group.
The first and most conspicuous subsidiary he founded was KGL Technology Limited. In its first major deal, the company digitized Ghana’s lottery operations, run by the National Lottery Authority (NLA), by introducing USSD and online platforms that transformed a traditionally manual system and money-losing venture into a modern, technology-driven, and profitable enterprise. The platform he created for NLA is working so well that KGL Tech is being asked to replicate it in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
Another subsidiary Alex founded was Fuel Automation Ghana Limited. This company received the mandate from the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Ghana, to design, build, and automate 300 landing beach premix fuel outlets in Ghana — providing purpose-made fuel for fishermen who use outboard motors, and tackling issues of diversion, corruption, adulteration, and hoarding that had afflicted the sector for years. He did this very successfully.
In eight years, Alex has built KGL Group into a wholly owned Ghanaian enterprise comprising eight subsidiaries with interests in technology innovation, FinTech, logistics, trade, property development, gaming, and commerce. (The name “KGL” comes from “Keed Ghana Ltd” – one of the subsidiaries that is into mobile and telecom financial services).
As great an entrepreneur as Alex is, he also ardently believes in giving back. To achieve that, one of his subsidiaries, the KGL Foundation, is tasked with philanthropy.
In partnership with the Eve Medical Foundation, the foundation is building a psychiatric hospital at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. The foundation makes recurring donations of incubators to hospitals across the country, and has a scholarship program for orphans and underprivileged children.
The KGL Group signed a landmark two-year sponsorship deal worth GH¢20 million with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to support the Black Stars, and the foundation has a five-year sponsorship agreement with the GFA to develop grassroots football, including providing equipment like footballs and organizing events such as the KGL U-17 Champions League.
And Alex has not forgotten his roots.
He is funding a multi-million sports complex that is under construction at Mfantsipim.
In a visit by a MOBA delegation to KGL House in 2025, Alex donated a GH¢100,000 cash prize to support Mfantsipim’s sports initiatives and introduced the “Alex Dadey Sportsman of the Year Award” — an annual GH¢10,000 prize to be awarded to the most deserving sportsman each year at Mfantsipim’s Speech and Prize Giving Day.
He also announced a mentorship scheme in partnership with KGL Group, designed to equip young MOBA professionals with industry-ready skills for the Ghanaian job market.
Alex strongly believes in public-private partnerships and that they are not only for developing Ghana and the whole of the African continent, but also for creating a path towards a unified African market.
He initiated the Ghana Diaspora Homecoming Summit in 2017 and the Ghana Investment and Opportunities Summit UK in 2018, both of which are now held biennially.
He serves on several corporate boards, including Ecom Agro Industrial, Premier Textiles Group in the United Kingdom, Birchfield Investments Limited in Jersey, Channel Islands, and Dubai, KGL Capital (UK) Limited, and Dominion Direct (UK) Limited. He is also a sought-after speaker, having spoken at the University of Ghana, the London School of Economics, and Oxford University.
Is it any surprise that Alex Dadey is one very awarded individual?
In 2017, he was awarded the “Excellence in Organizational Leadership” and the “Diaspora African Forum Excellence Award” by the Ghana Diaspora Homecoming Summit Committee for the successful execution of the Ghana Diaspora Homecoming and for his prominent role in ensuring the summit’s success, respectively.
He was named “Man of the Year” at the 8th EMY Africa Awards in 2023, and as of May 2025, had won “CEO of the Year” three consecutive times.
In 2025, he won the prestigious “Forbes Best of Africa Corporate Leadership and Innovation Award” at a Leadership and Philanthropy Forum held at the House of Lords in London.
For Alex Dadey, business is not only about the profit but about creating a legacy. It is about building a Ghanaian institution that lasts generations. He sees business as integral to community and nation-building. He has the unwavering faith that Africa can build homegrown institutions.
In all he does, Alex epitomizes the powerful lessons that feed the age-old traditions of Mfantsipim. Lessons of excellence, vision, foresight, patience, integrity, hard work, and social consciousness have helped to fuel his success.
Alex Apau Dadey is an illustrious son of Mfantsipim, a Botwe boy.