Yaw Ampofo Ankrah was one of the few sports personalities who drove numerous avid sports fans to tune in and watch sports especially football programs on radio and TV.
The calm-mannered but certain and dexterous sports moderator had a thing for Law but was passionate about being in the media, especially in the sports space. He has been in this for right around two decades.
From his humble solid start at a little fm station, Sunshine Radio in Accra, Ampofo Ankrah describes that momentous year of 1999 under the tutelage of Kwasi Kyei Darkwah (KKD), to Tommy Annan Forson’s mentorship at Choice Fm, Emma Morrison’s guiding at TV3, and furthermore presenting sports next to the late BBC newscaster Komla Dumor on the Super Morning Show at Joy Fm.
Prior to approaching these feats, he was a raw journalist at a media outfit, Multimedia in Ghana, and was empassioned to do sports.
In the wake of getting that much involvement with Multimedia, he found an opportunity to work at BBC and later came back to Ghana to work with another tenable TV station, Metro TV in 2006.
This was the period of Ghana’s first world cup appearance in Germany. So on behalf of the station, Yaw Ampofo Ankrah reported for Metro TV as the main presenter who brought Live updates from the camp of Ghana’s National team, the Black Stars from Germany and the entire competition.
Ampofo Ankrah additionally worked for some regarded and credible media organizations in Ghana and beyond including Supersport, BBC, E.TV Ghana, Atlantis Radio, Joy FM, Choice FM, Class FM, Y-FM and numerous others as a sports host and now and again, as a pundit. He also filled in as a producer and an executive producer for a portion of the above mentioned stations.
Ampofo Ankrah once detailed as a parliamentary reporter for Joy FM in Accra, and was put on an end of the week act to play country music by his then boss, Tommy Annan Forson (a legendary broadcaster).
Yaw Ampofo Ankrah is also a content author and an editor. His command over the English language is exceptional, and he conveys an abundance of information also.
The multi talented man was the author of Heritage Magazine UK, a TV series on OBE TV, which grabbed the eye of many people. He is generally credited with presenting the curiosity grassroots talent project Street Soccer Africa to Ghana.
Amusingly, before his large break as a sports columnist, the major turning point in his life was when he failed to gain admission for a BBC programme. Ampofo Ankrah really went after a position with BBC Talent in London in 2002 but was dismissed on the premise that, he didn’t advance to the next stage.
At the time, he had recently gotten married and the wife was expecting their first baby. Shockingly, he was then filling in as a night security official at the Medical Research Council and simultaneously, was studying Humanities and Media at Birkbeck University in London.
After some time, he pushed on at the BBC and was given a few obligations to play at BBC Bush House as a producer. He went above and beyond to be a moderator of the leader sports program ‘Fast Track’ which was broadcasting to a collective world crowd of more than 40 million audience members.
Ampofo Ankrah never chased after money but the terrain was positively increasingly competitive for him. He was engaged and challenged himself to reach at his goals.
He is currently the best sports journalist in Africa and even the world over. Yaw Ampofo Ankrah has delved into beach soccer as the President of the Ghana Beach Sports Association (GBSA).
