Esther Cobbah — CEO of Stratcomm Africa tells her story

Saturday, May 16, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 3)

By Rebecca Kwei
Very early in life, she knew she wanted to be in the communication industry because she believed communication was a tool that could be used effectively for national development.
For more than the two decades that she has been in communications with various organisations, Ms Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, CEO of Stratcomm Africa, a communications and public relations outfit, proudly says she has no regrets choosing that field, a profession she handles effortlessly and with passion. In fact communicating effectively comes to her naturally.
Strategic Communications Africa Limited or Stratcomm Africa, which Ms Cobbah founded, celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.
Speaking with The Mirror in a relaxed atmosphere at her office at Asylum Down, a suburb of Accra, Ms Cobbah said her basic education saw her through various schools such as Queen Elizabeth School at Komenda, Ekuasi Methodist Primary at Sekondi and then the Komenda L A Primary School because her father, William Edward Cobbah, a postmaster, was posted to various towns.
Mmofraturo School in Kumasi was her next destination from 1967 to 1969 before she went to Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast in 1969.
“I enjoyed my time at Mmofraturo and Wesley Girls and what I learnt there has impacted positively in my life,” she said.
She reminisces that while in Form One in Wesley Girls, she started the Evangels, a singing group comprising students from Wesley Girls and Adisadel College, and then another, Noise of Joy, comprising Wesley Girls and Mfanstipim students, and these groups later combined to become Joyful Way Singers now Joyful Way Incorporated.
Again in Sixth Form in Wesley Girls she was selected to be the Senior Prefect and she says “being selected by your peers is something to be proud of and as SP I tried to deepen relationship with students to understand them better but I was quite strict”.
Throughout the interview, Ms Cobbah spoke fondly of her late mum, Victoria Cobbah, who she described as very enterprising, remarkable and very generous.
“I was very close to my mum and I learnt a lot from her and grew up loving her deeply,” she said.
After Wesley Girls, Ms Cobbah entered the University of Ghana, Legon where she studied English, Religions and History and did a combined major in English and Religions. She did her national service at the Presec School where she taught Religious Studies.
Her burning desire to do communications saw her going back to the School of Communications for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism and Communication.
“I believe communication can be used to promote mutual understanding. Without understanding, we cannot live in harmony and influence the things people do,” she stated.
Fortunately, after graduating from the School of Communications, she was recommended by the late Prof. P. A. V. Ansah to the United States Information Service (USIS) to do her internship.
“Being at the USIS contributed immensely to my professional development. It was a holistic experience for me. I developed my photojournalism skills; I take pictures, go to the dark room to develop them, did media monitoring and wrote articles among others,” she narrated.
Due to the good work she did with the USIS, she was asked to stay for six months instead of the six weeks’ attachment.
Ms Cobbah got employment as the Public Relations Officer of the then Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) after her internship with the USIS where she continued to hone her communication skills from 1982 to 1984.
At GIHOC, Ms Cobbah’s experience together with the general environment in Ghana at the time apart from strengthening her convictions about using communication to achieve national development goals also fuelled the awareness of her need to further her education and expertise.
While at USIS, she had researched for universities and she later applied to the Cornell University in the USA and gained admission but without financial aid.
She, therefore, applied for a Rotary Foundation Scholarship and then went for an interview but did not hear from them again.
Weeks turned into months and there was no sign of her getting funds for her education until out of the blue an American benefactor she met while working with the USIS decided to fund her trip to the US, as well as her first year at Cornell University. Luck came her way again as she was later awarded the Rotary Foundation Scholarship she had applied for.
At Cornell she specialised in Public Relations, Communications for Developing Countries and Intercultural Communication, Extension Education as well as Organisational Communication.
She described her time at Cornell as a wonderful learning experience because “it was evident I was acquiring real world knowledge and skills”.
Ms Cobbah returned to Ghana in 1988 and was invited to work with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), which had no public relations department and she set up that unit from scratch.
This afforded her a brilliant opportunity to implement and practise all she had studied about organisational and intercultural communication. She rose through the ranks to later head the public relations department.
Some of the high points while at GNPC were the opportunities to set up a workable internal communication system that worked for both engineering and non-engineering staff of the company in a developing environment.
When in 1991, the government decided to promote Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) beyond urban areas, Ms Cobbah developed LPG variants of the local mud stove, the ‘Chorkor’ smoker, and the pito stove after a survey among the target audience.
“The then management of GNPC was happy with the work I did with the LPG and the stoves and this culminated in the setting up of a subsidiary known as Energy Products. Today, the stoves are all over town,” she said with appreciation in her voice.
Additionally, she was responsible for co-ordinating the then GNPC annual international Oil and Gas Africa Conferences in Ghana, a responsibility that gave her invaluable experience.
As she expertly handled this conferences and other duties, her good works were noticed and in 1999 to 2001 she was seconded as the first External Public Affairs Manager for the West African Gas Pipeline Project (WAGPP). The WAGPP was promoted by a consortium of Shell, Chevron, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, GNPC and the national gas companies of Togo and Benin.
Here again, she set up the public affairs office from scratch, working in a cross-cultural and multilingual environment.
Ms Cobbah became the Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm Africa in 2001. She is also a director of the Centre for Development and Intercultural Communication (CEDIC), a non-governmental organisation, and has led the establishment of a network of youth drama troupes involved in community participatory theatre, an initiative she began with young people from impoverished communities.
As the Chief Executive of Stratcomm Africa, Ms Cobbah has led the team to develop and implement comprehensive communication strategies for various organisations. She has also evolved several approaches for using communication to achieve organisational harmony and effectiveness.
Stratcomm has “Work to the glory of God” as one of its cardinal principles and it is no wonder it won the Christian Company of the Year for 2008.
As Stratcomm Africa celebrates 15 years on the theme: “Raising the bar in the Communication Industry”, she says “there is the need to raise the standards of communication in the country by combining the science and art of communication to get to the higher levels where other countries have reached and beyond”.
“We in the industry also need to challenge ourselves by raising our professionalism and working with integrity and in an honest manner and not cut corners.”
Ms Cobbah said she was grateful to God, colleagues, employees, friends and family and all who had contributed to the success of Stratcomm.
“Everyone can make it. You just have to look at the opportunities around you and grab it. Look at what is in your hands and work with it. Don’t dwell on situations that come your way which are not pleasant but tell yourself ‘this too shall pass’,” she admonished.
She loves singing, gardening, playing with children and working with the youth. She is married to Tsatsu Tsikata, a man she describes as a “wonderful and supportive husband” and they have two children, Kwame and Kofi.