Ken Ofori-Ata (sp?), Databank, 7/3/00 KO was interviewed at the offices of Databank, which occupy the entire 5th floor of the SSINT Tower Block building in central Accra. Databank has a number of offices on this floor and at least one very small conference room where the meeting took place. Ken is president and CEO of Databank, a firm specializing in financial transactions and financial management, both individual and corporate. DB was started in 1990 by KO and two of his "mates" from the US. KO became involved in WAEN in 1993 at the urging of Michele Couchel and Debbie Orsini. KO said that "he did know they got my name." KO worked at Morgan Stanley in New York for a number of years after schooling in the US (1982-1990) including an MBA from Columbia. His original goals for WAEN were to 'look for entrepreneurs who were committed to staying and investing here, with a new approach to doing things." WAEN started with 12 people and now have 45 members. Another goal expressed by KO was to "break the divide" between anglo and francophone W. Africa and to encourage trade and investment. The objective of WAEN was to find a means of promoting cross border trade and the promotion of best practices across borders. They also wanted to gain a voice in the political structure "without being co-opted by it". "How do we trade across borders without the political noise?" WAEN started with 12 members, some of them returnees, although KO claimed that none of them new each other as expatriates. KO said that the original WAEN group also featured a number of "partners" including the manager of Ghana's largest bank, a large poultry farmer and a presidential advisor. Personnel: He went to US as an undergrad in 1980 and went to Columbia University, then worked and went to grad. School (UG?) at Yale. He came back to Ghana in 1991.. They then tried to find like-minded young entrepreneurs who were committed to being back in Ghana or had taken over their parent's businesses. Interested in transparency, cross-border trade, ensuring that business practices were in conformance, and best practices. They wanted to achieve a voice and do business without being involved in government. They gained observer status at ECOWAS. This was new since they did it without being in politics. Usually business people are not trusted because they are in gov't, or they use their business connections to fight against gov't. WAEN has 13 of 17 ECOWAS countries. About 60-70% of WAEN are returnees. Members are expected to pay for their trips, for example, he has been to a meeting of SAEN in Mozambique and EAEN in Kampala and something in Nairobi. He is planning to go to Addis, chosen, he thinks because of the nice hotel (he's been there before). He thinks that some non-network people will also attend. He is also on the board of the Zimbabwean EN, and has worked with the Gambian one (trust bank-30% ?????). WAEN now gives training in 1) lobbying techniques, (b) impediments to trade, and c) financing and sources.` USAID completed the network in west Africa and is now working on EAEN and SAEN, but just came back in December (MSI was involved) and did the intranet, which he does not use. In response to a Q on service sector businesses and WAEN, he said that there are also manufacturing businesses (windows, furniture, bottle tops, etc.). After a decade in New York, he thought it would be jarring to return to Ghana, but along with a colleague from DC and one from Yale, they started DataBank. The company was started with $25k of their own money. Databank has moved from business consulting and accounting services to become experts in pricing, processing data, advising on capital structures. In 1994 they opened a stock brokerage firm to manage transactions on the Ghana Stock Exchange. DB now employees 42 people in the main office. KO stated that DB now managed over 50% of all trades on the stock market. DB also owns an insurance company that is organized as a subsidiary with over 100 employees. There are 22 listed companies on the exchange and 1 bond. DB is also sponsoring the friendly takeover of a Gambian bank with plans for listing it on the Ghana Stock Exchange. 20 members of the Network are involved in the purchase of the Gambian bank. DB is also in the process of starting a fund of $30 million dollars for investment in Network member businesses. This fund will be called the West Africa Fund. KO indicated that the investment group is on track to have raised 20 million dollars by Aug./Sept. and will proceed at that point. On the subject of WAEN. KO stated that one of the benefits of the Network is that it allowed and continues to allow members not "to work in isolation". That one of the primary characteristics of WAEN members should be that they believed in and practiced ethical business behavior. KO stated that "good ethical business is long term and profitable." KO stated that the last two years have been years of "transition" for WAEN as support for programming has moved from MSI and OECD to the regional office in Accra. KO stated that he was head of WAEN from 1993-1998, that Frank Gadzepko was briefly in charge in 1998 and that Ashim Morton has been head for most of the last two years. KO also stated that the last three years in the development of EAN and SEAN were modeled and the WAEN experience. .