From his mother's shop to Special Ice and UTV: how Ernest Ofori Sarpong built the Special Group, and why nobody can put a number on it

Dr Ernest Ofori Sarpong is the founder and chief executive of the Special Group of Companies, which includes Special Ice, Special Investments and Sarpong Ventures. With Osei Kwame Despite, he co-owns UTV, Best Point Savings and Loans and U2 Salt through United 2 Company Ltd, according to the Media Ownership Monitor, Graphic Online and Pulse Ghana. What no one has is a credible figure for what he is worth.

One birthday, two headlines

On 5 May 2026, his 60th birthday, he handed his old school, PRESEC Legon, a 600-bed dormitory named Ofori Sarpong House, Citi Newsroom, Yen.com.gh and Ghana Weekend reported. Despite and the Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, were among the guests, according to Citi Newsroom and Ghana Weekend. No outlet has published what the building cost.

The same day he arrived in a new 2026 Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Pulse Ghana and Yen.com.gh reported. Pulse Ghana put the car at close to US$1 million, based on dealers' list prices. No receipt has been published.

Not a rags-to-riches story

He was born on 5 May 1966 in the Ashanti Region. In a video reported by Yen.com.gh in May 2026, he said his father was one of the police commanders in the Special Branch, now the Bureau of National Intelligence, and that the family moved from Wa to Accra and Tema as his father was posted. That account comes from him alone.

His mother, he said in a Joy FM interview in 2021 and again in a 2026 video, ran a trading and import business. "It's a family business though," he said, as reported by Yen.com.gh. He told MyJoyOnline in 2021 that his upbringing was privileged.

He studied science at PRESEC Legon and wanted to become a medical doctor, MyJoyOnline and Yen.com.gh reported. After school he went into the family business instead. "I don't have regrets," he told MyJoyOnline in 2021. His published biography says he later qualified as a chartered accountant and took an MSc in Finance and Investment Management at the University of Salford in the UK.

The customer who became a partner

By Despite's own account, the two men met about 40 years ago, when Despite used to buy goods from Ofori Sarpong's mother's shop in Accra. Despite said so in a video for the 60th birthday, reported by Yen.com.gh. A 2021 GhanaWeb piece also describes their friendship as starting as a customer relationship. The two men are not related.

His first company was Sarpong Ventures, an import and trading business, according to MyJoyOnline and the Media Ownership Monitor. By his own account, given in two separate interviews reported by Yen.com.gh and GhanaWeb, he had built a four-storey building in Opera Square, Accra, by the age of 28. His property business became Special Investments, which works in real estate and construction.

Water, then TV

Special Ice began operations in 2011, according to the company and Norfund, Norway's state development investment fund. The company says its water comes from a spring source under the Aburi hills, with a main factory near Aburi and a second factory in Kumasi; the Media Ownership Monitor also lists factories in Accra and Kumasi. Soft drinks followed, in six flavours by 2019, MyJoyOnline reported. Special Ice says it holds about 15% of Ghana's mineral water market. That figure is the company's own and QMS News could not check it independently. Norfund's own page lists a 2021 loan to Special Ice, since exited; the amount was not disclosed.

UTV, co-owned with Despite, launched in 2013. In April 2016, Best Point Savings and Loans announced it had raised ₵112 million in deposits in its first two years and had 15 branches, Graphic Online reported. Those figures come from the company's own announcement.

What can be counted

On 27 March 2020, in the first weeks of COVID-19 in Ghana, he and Despite gave US$100,000 to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Graphic Online and GhanaWeb reported. After the 3 June 2015 flood and fire in Accra, the two men seeded the Despite Group's disaster relief fund with ₵100,000, according to Graphic Online and ModernGhana. In 2026 the University of Ghana College of Health Sciences acknowledged ₵100,000 from him for its Bright and Needy Students Fund, according to the college's own website.

In November 2025 the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry named him Chamber Businessman of the Year, GNA and MyJoyOnline reported. On 1 August 2026 he became the first Chancellor of the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC), Graphic Online and MyJoyOnline reported. His "Dr" title comes from an honorary doctorate from "Barkley University", which is not a recognised accredited university.

The number nobody has

Ofori Sarpong is not on any Forbes rich list. The net worth figures that circulate online come from sites that give no sources, and QMS News does not repeat them. In 2021 he dismissed the rumour that he and Despite own half of East Legon, saying it was "not even one percent", GhanaWeb reported. That report is the only source for the remark.

THE WORTH is a QMS series on how Ghanaians built their wealth, told through the numbers. Episode one told the story of Osei Kwame Despite.