Roland’s rise from rags to riches; a riveting story of RLG

Roland Agambire

Roland Agambire, CEO of RLG saved a life on his 38th birthday last Thursday, but the enduring story of his rise from rags to riches could save the sinking hopes and battered dreams of millions of Ghanaian and African youth.

It is not just another story, another statistic of people with humble beginnings moving up the social ladder. It is the story of faith; an incredible montage of pain, poverty mixed with an intoxicating passion to break the odds of poverty and to live the global dream.

Roland shared that dream with millions of listeners on Joy FM’sPersonality Profile segment on Drive Time with Bola Ray.

Agambire who is now the chairman of the Agams Group of Companies [with Seven Great Integrated Companies] was only a statistic growing up.

To say the family was poor was an understatement; he had 50 siblings; his mother was the sixth of his father’s ten wives. They all lived in Sirigu, a town in the Kassena Nankana district of the Upper East Region.

With such a family, Roland was right in saying the possibility of being forgotten is real and rife.

On the same mat, Roland said, ten people slept in the evening like prisoners in a crowded jail; woke up in the morning and ate from the same bowl.

He learnt the lessons of poverty the hard way but was gracious all through the learning curve.

At age six, he started making money by picking monies from beer bars in Sirigu; monies dropped by people who have had enough to drink the night before and just enough money to spare. If the monies were not blown away by the air, they ended up in the pockets of Roland Agambire.

Part of that money paid for his school fees at a primary school in Sirigu and the other part invested into business.

At Navrongo Secondary School, the stakes were high; the school fees higher and needed the highest innovation to endure.

During vacation, Roland Agambire moved down south to the capital, Accra, pushed trucks, washed dishes in chop bars, just to make some money to pay his school fees when school reopened.

Blessings of poverty

He persevered in all that. Instead of being heartbroken by the harsh realities of life and giving up as many would do, Roland had a dream; lived that dream and now is a global player with RLG a household name in Ghana and offices in Dubai, China, Nigeria, Gambia.

Poverty, Agambire said, is a blessing in disguise. It toughened him up; a stage every man must experience even if for a short while.

Agambire has three lovely girls; an adorable wife-Miriam- and coincidentally celebrating ten years of marriage and ten years of RLG Communications. His vision is to employ one million people by 2015.

On his 38th birthday, Roland paid ¢18,000 as full cost of treatment to save a child suffering from a kidney problem and what a way to pay back society for its blessings.

Raise your glasses, and lets toast to the success story of RLG; to applied persistence and determination; to Roland Agambire who saw poverty, conquered it and walked into riches and now drives in a ‘little beast’ of a car.