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Samuel Esson Jonah (born 19 November 1949) is a Fante businessman and the current chancellor of the University of Cape Coast. He is the executive chairman of Jonah Capital, an equity fund based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jonah was previously president of AngloGold Ashanti.
Sam Jonah has broken rocks miles underground and brokered deals over the boardroom table. He’s advised world leaders and discovered a passion for parrots. He is probably one of the few men in the world to be knighted in London nearly 30 years after sweating as a miner in the searing heat, miles beneath the country of his birth.
It all began in 1949, Jonah was born in a military camp in Kibi, Ghana; his father—a sergeant major and World War II veteran, served in the Royal West African Frontier Force. Soon after, Jonah Senior left the army and set up a construction company. The family moved to Obuasi where Jonah went to school. It was after high school that Jonah made the surprising decision to work underground at Ashanti Goldfields Corporation’s Obuasi mine, the only mine in Ghana at that time. Jonah’s classmates were going into law and medicine, while he was going to work shoulder-to-shoulder with men who had barely gone to school.
Sam Jonah is a Fante Royal but born in Kibi and raised in Obuasi and had his high-school education at Adisadel College in Cape Coast, then earned an Associateship in Mining Engineering at the Camborne School of Mines and subsequently a MSc in Mine Management at the Imperial College of Science and Technology.
Career
He joined Ashanti Goldfields Corporation in 1979, working in various capacities, including underground operations. At the age of 36 he became the chief executive officer, and supervised the transformation of Ashanti Goldfields into a mining multinational, increased gold production from 240,000 ounces per annum to over 1.6 million ounces in over ten years, and oversaw the company’s listing as the first operating African company on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2009, he became a non-executive director of Vodafone.
Jonah was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2019 for leadership and technical contributions in advancing the mineral industry in Africa.
Currently, the chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Jonah chairs the boards of Equator Exploration Limited, Scharrig Mining, Equinox Minerals, Uramin, Moto Goldmines Ltd and Range Resources Limited. He also serves or has served on various boards, including Transnet, Mittal Steel SA, Ashesi University, Standard Bank of South Africa, Lonmin, the Commonwealth African Investment Fund (Comafin), the advisory council of the UN Secretary General’s Global Compact, President Olusegun Obasanjo‘s International Investment Advisory Council on Nigeria, President Thabo Mbeki‘s International Investment Advisory Council of South Africa, and President John Kufuor‘s Ghana Investors’ Advisory Council. As well as his directorships, Jonah is a member of the advisory board of the London Business School. He is also a board member of the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Foundation.
“Wisdom does not reside in the head of only one person,” warns Jonah.
Jonah says his parents taught him all he knows about leadership. They encouraged humility, told him that good days are not forever and that he should never give up.
In 1999, Jonah needed all these skills when AshantiGold faced a liquidity squeeze. It came at a bad time for the company as it was trying to raise $125 million to build a mine in Tanzania.
The root of the problem was hedging done by the company when the gold price was low. This was viewed as a risk management tool and a price protection mechanism. Unfortunately for AshantiGold, a decision taken by global central banks saw a sharp increase in the gold price. The market price was greater than the hedged price and the company did not have enough cash for margin calls because it had pumped a lot of money into new mines. Jonah says this was a bruising time for the company and the most difficult of his career. The company’s share price fell to the point that the New York Stock Exchange was considering delisting it. It took eight months to recover and years to prosper.
Jonah, the driving force behind AshantiGold’s growth, sees opportunities where others don’t. In his time, AshantiGold grew from a single mine in Ghana to the second largest gold producer in the world.
The company was public until the Ghanaian military government under General Acheampong, took 55% share in 1972—making it a partnership between the government and Lonrho. In the quest for growth, Jonah and his team convinced the partners that better days were ahead if the company went public again. Once AshantiGold listed in both Ghana and London, the government held 17% of the company and Lonrho 27%. Between 1994 and 2004, AshantiGold went on the acquisition hunt in an attempt to be both an entrepreneurial as well as a conservative company. It extended its operations in Ghana, Australia, Zimbabwe, Guinea and Tanzania. In 1996, AshantiGold became the first African-based company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
There is a saying that goes: “No good deed goes unpunished.” As AshantiGold grew, the hunter became the hunted. Success attracted the interest of numerous companies.
Jonah felt the choice was to grow from within, or agree to be part of a bigger outfit. It proved difficult trying to convince partners that issuing shares, thus diluting power, was best. The government was faced with a competitive demand for its money, while Lonrho wanted to focus more on platinum. With no other defense, a merger was the only option.
The $1.48 billion merger between AshantiGold and AngloGold, then the seventh and second largest gold producers respectively, was far from a merger of equals.
“We were punching beyond our weight,” says Jonah.
Despite this, AshantiGold’s management secured key positions within AngloGold Ashanti, with Jonah becoming the executive president of the merged entity.
After his time at AngloGold Ashanti, Jonah became a serial director. Some junior mining companies approached him to guide them to success, as he had done for Ashanti. Equinox Minerals, a mining exploration company based in Zambia, was at the feasibility stage when it approached Jonah. Years later, in 2011, the company that had a market capitalization of $63.1 million in 2006, was sold to the Barrick Gold Corporation for $7.4 billion. Moto Goldmines, in Ghana, grew from a $50 million market capitalization company and was sold to Randgold Resources and AngloGold Ashanti in October 2009.
Since AngloGold Ashanti, Jonah has sat on at least 18 boards of companies.
Jonah currently sits on the boards of a few companies, including Vodafone Plc. He is also the founder and chairman of Jonah Capital, a private investment holding company, based in South Africa, with interests in mineral resources, real estate, agriculture, construction materials, financial services and oil and gas services.
His counsel has extended beyond the business world. When former South African President Thabo Mbeki set up the International Investment Advisory Council in 2000, Jonah was the first and only African to sit on it. He has also been an advisor to Nigerian Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, his successor Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. He was a founding member of Ghanaian President John Kufuor’s investment advisory council and advised the late president of Zambia, Levy Mwanawasa, on investment promotion. Jonah was also on Kofi Annan’s UN Global Compact Advisory Council. Three years ago he helped the president of Togo put together a team that would formulate strategy for the country.
According to his biography, Sam Jonah and the Remaking of Ashanti by Ayowa A. Taylor, Jonah turned down the position of Ghanaian vice president twice.
On June 25, 2003, Jonah received an Honorary Knighthood in recognition of his achievement as an African businessman at St. James’ Palace, in London. Knighthoods conferred to foreign citizens are done so on the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They are bestowed on those who have made an important contribution to relations between their country and Britain.
Honours and recognition
Jonah’s honours include an honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degree awarded jointly by the Camborne School of Mines and the University of Exeter (UK) in 1996. Jonah House in Adisadel College has been named after his father, Thomas Jonah.
In June 2003, Jonah became the first Ghanaian to be knighted in the 21st century when he was presented with an honorary knighthood (KBE) by the Prince of Wales, in recognition of his achievements as an African businessman, a leading business executive from the Commonwealth, and an international public figure.
Jonah has listed among the richest people in Ghana with some sources naming him as the richest man in Ghana.
On 5 December 2019, he was appreciated by the Ghana Mine workers union with a platinum award for his contribution to developing the mining industry in Ghana.
In January 2023, he was listed among the 100 most reputable Africans in the field of business.
