Yaw Sekyi

It’s Rundown on TV Africa
*With Yaw Sekyi

Host of TV Africa’s entertainment programme-Run Down, Yaw Sekyi, is carving a niche in the showbiz industry. His vessel is not the movie industry where most Ghanaian entertainers have excelled and are noted for.

He is the host of the popular TV Africa’s Run Down entertainment programme where top showbiz personalities have starred and continue to attract many more in the entertainment world.
Our Entertainment Reporter, Raphael Aidoo caught up with Yaw recently in a chit-chat about his sudden rise in the industry. We bring to readers excerpts of the interview:

Raph: Yaw Sekyi has been around for some time now. But I want to find out from you, who is Yaw Sakyi?
Yaw: Yaw Sakyi is one fine young man who is proud to be Ghanaian raised and bread in Ghana.
He has lived in Ghana all his life and he is in his early 30s. Yaw Sekyi thinks he has given a very good account of himself to mother Ghana for the past 30 years of existence on earth.
He has done several things and has got a clean record so far. He has not engaged in anything bad because he is disciplinarian.

Yaw Sekyi is the fourth of five children. We are only two guys three girls. I live in Accra single, not married yet. I had my primary education at Cosmos Preparatory School located at Lapaz New Market. At that time, the school had no JHS so I had to enroll at Abeka 1 JHS for my junior high education.
From Abeka 1 JHS, I continued my education at Snaps College of Accountancy and then to Ghana Institute of Journalism. I am currently at GIMPA pursuing a Bachelor Degree in Accounting.
I have been a teacher for some time. I have thought several students and pupils before coming to work with Choice Fm for four years and over. This was between 2002 and 2006.
After gaining a little experience in the industry, I realised I had become a big man so I went on to establish my own company called Rite Multimedia, an advertising and event production company.
We are into radio and television production and so far we have been accredited for reviving Basket Ball in Ghana. We have been able to transform and promote the Basket Ball sport in Ghana.
Last year for instance, we were given the state meritorious award during the SWAG awards and we received another award in the United States of America on December 4th in recognition for promoting the Basket Ball sport in Africa.
We are doing well in the field of broadcasting as well and so far that has been the story and we have discharged our duties diligently in the area of promoting Basket Ball among other things.
I have been involved in the production and hosting of the Rundown which has been running for almost five years now on TV Africa.

Raph: So what motivated you to invest your time and resources into a lesser known sport like Basket Ball?
I think that my inspiration you know came out of my desire to contribute my quota to the development of mother Ghana.
I think it is not enough to sit back and criticize government or people in public positions for not doing well to develop the country.
I asked myself one-day that what have I done for my country at all which should compel me get up and criticize politicians or government officials.
So in championing this solo course, I think we have done very well because we did not disappoint Ghanaians. So far, we have been able to give hope to many young Ghanaians who have Basket Ball skills as their talent as well as those who desire and have developed interest in the sport.
We thank God that through this initiative a lot of these guys want to pursue Basket Ball as their chosen carrier.
Basket Ball has a huge potential and I am quite surprised that the stakeholders in the industry are not doing much to promote the sport.

Raph: Is it worth being a star? How do you feel as a Star?
Yaw: Yes! I must say frankly that it is good and bad. Let me explain. It is good because you would go to places and you can easily be recognized and acknowledged.
You would get people admiring you for what you do and get something in return for free.
The little disadvantage is that everybody will talk about your private life because you go to a chop bar and is like you are eating and everybody is looking at you its like you’ve sold your life to the public.
But hey! Its all good! Though there are certain things you have to consider before you go into stardom.
I have not regretted at all getting into the lime light of showbiz circle but what I think I have been able to do is to position myself very well. I always want to portray myself as a corporate person.
When I am in the studio, I try to be one to entertain people put smiles on the face of people but when I get out of the studio I am that CEO of that company doing well with Basket Ball so I need to make sure I balance the way I carry myself.

Raph: Rundown will be five years come the month of June. What do you have for your viewers and fans?

Yaw: For those who have been loyal to us; yes! We have lined up several promotions for them this year and we are starting off with some seminar in Takoradi and Cape Coast this weekend to provide answers to many questions and challenges the youth of today are facing.
So we are going to Takoradi today, Friday 11th February, 2011 and we would also move to Cape Coast this Saturday.
We will be back to Accra by Monday and are hoping that good God himself will shine his mercies upon us to have a very successful event.
That apart, we have several promotions we are going to run on the show like asking people how well they know the Rundown, how well they know the host and some of our guest artistes and we would be rewarding our cherished viewers in about a month to come.
Finally, I would like to thank Ghanaians for accepting me for who I am; for loving the things we do and for supporting the Rundown. What I want to tell them is that this is just the beginning. For 5 years, I keep saying basket ball is here to stay; it was played in the past but we hope to sustain and maintain the momentum to be able to continue with the project.