Long before he occupied the corner office of Republic Bank (Ghana) PLC, Dr Benjamin Dzoboku spent his childhood days in the cattle fields, leading herds and learning lessons in discipline, observation and leadership that he says continue to influence him to this day.

The Managing Director of Republic Bank says his unlikely journey from a village near Battor in the Volta Region to the top echelons of Ghana’s banking industry began with a life that was far removed from banking.

“I started as a cowboy,” Dr Dzoboku told Lexis Bill on Joy FM’s Personality Profile on Thursday, September 17, 2026.

“Yeah. I was a cowboy. Even after I finished middle school, I was still leading the cows.”

Born to a farming family, Dr Dzoboku said his father, who was from Mafikumikpo, a small village near Battor, was a farmer who also kept cattle, while his mother was from Battor in the North Tongu area.

For several years, cattle herding was his daily routine.

He would take the animals into the bush, sometimes leaving home around 5 a.m. during the dry season and returning as late as 6 or 7 p.m.

“It’s a whole day of walking,” he recalled, describing a childhood that involved carrying water and food and spending long hours observing the animals.

But beyond the physical demands of the work, Dr Dzoboku said the experience exposed him to a fascinating system of order and leadership among the cattle.

Lessons from the herd

According to him, one of the earliest lessons he learnt from the cattle was that leadership and order existed even within the animal kingdom.

“You see, so as a cowboy, even though the cows are like that, they also have leaders,” he said.

“Immediately you open them, the leader will take the lead.”

He said the cowboy’s responsibility was often to observe the herd, understand its behaviour and direct it towards the desired destination.

The animals, he explained, also responded to individual names and recognised the calls of those who tended them.

“If you are a cow head or a cowboy, they know you. They also know you by language,” he said.

He recalled that every cow in the herd had a name and would respond when called.

The experience, he said, taught him to pay close attention to behaviour, listen carefully and understand what was happening around him before taking action.

“I use my eyes a lot,” he said. “To look at things, observe.”

That habit of observation, he suggested, remains part of his leadership style.

“I observe. When I come to a place, I observe. I don’t like talking too much,” he said.

Discipline as a leadership principle

For Dr Dzoboku, perhaps the most important lesson from his years as a cowboy was discipline.

He said cattle could be left in the bush and still remain within an established order, returning to familiar surroundings rather than wandering aimlessly.

Reflecting on that experience, he said discipline had become an important principle in his management philosophy.

“If you talk to my staff, I’m very disciplined,” he said.

“No, no, no. I will not allow you. I’m very calm but very disciplined.”

He went further to identify discipline as a major challenge facing Ghanaian society.

“The problem that we have in this country is not that we don’t have resources but is discipline in society,” he said.

“That is the main problem we have in this country. Is not anything. If the people are disciplined, this country can be turned overnight.”

His comments underline how strongly he connects his childhood experience with his approach to leadership in the corporate world.

For him, the cattle fields were not merely a place where he worked as a young boy; they were an informal classroom where he learnt to observe, listen, exercise patience and maintain order.

A bicycle changed his path

Interestingly, Dr Dzoboku said he did not initially dream of becoming a banker or even pursuing a professional career.

After completing middle school, his father wanted him to become a transport operator and was prepared to buy him a van.

“I was so much happy,” he recalled.

But while he was still in the field with the cattle, his brother brought news that a secondary school was being established and encouraged him to continue his education.

His first reaction was resistance.

“I said, ‘No, no, no, no. Me, I want to be a transport driver.’”

The deciding factor, however, was a brand-new bicycle.

His family agreed to buy him one so that he could ride to school and return home.

The following day, his brother bought the bicycle, and Dr Dzoboku obtained the school forms and began his secondary education.

That decision would ultimately alter the course of his life.

At school, he developed an interest in accounting after being inspired by his accounting teacher.

“The way he was teaching accounting, I loved it,” he recalled.

“I developed that interest, so from the word go I wanted to be a chartered accountant.”

He also distinguished himself academically, saying he regularly placed between first and fourth position in his class.

From accountant to bank chief

His professional journey began with Panick and Foster before he moved to SG-SSB, later joining HFC.

It was at HFC that his career began to take a decisive turn.

While working in audit, he said he detected a fraud during an assignment.

That caught the attention of the then Managing Director of HFC, who decided that Dr Dzoboku's abilities could be better deployed in risk management.

“I went and started as the risk manager. So I was the first person as a risk manager in HFC. I developed the first manual for HFC,” he said.

He subsequently moved through several senior positions, including internal audit, finance, financial controller, treasury and retail and commercial banking.

He later became General Manager of Finance and Strategy after Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago acquired HFC.

That transition marked another significant stage in his career.

He was subsequently invited to Trinidad and Tobago for what he understood was an opportunity for the group's leadership to assess his readiness for a higher position.

Initially, he resisted the move.

“I didn’t want to go,” he said.

He eventually accepted after his boss, Farid Antar, persuaded him to make the trip.

His arrival in Trinidad coincided with the COVID-19 lockdown, which meant he spent about eight months there under unusual circumstances.

Although the lockdown restricted his movement, Dr Dzoboku said the period became an important personal and professional experience.

He returned to Ghana and introduced several changes within the bank before becoming Chief Operating Officer and eventually rising to the position of Managing Director.

‘I still love farming’

Despite reaching the highest level of corporate leadership, Dr Dzoboku said he has not abandoned the world from which he came.

He still farms and keeps cattle.

“I love that business,” he said.

For someone who spent his formative years leading cattle through the bush, the continued connection to farming appears to provide a link to his beginnings.

His story, however, is also one of an unexpected transformation from a young boy whose ambition was to drive a transport vehicle to a student who discovered accounting, a professional who built a career across audit, risk, finance, treasury and banking, and ultimately the Managing Director of one of Ghana’s major banks.

Yet, Dr Dzoboku says some of the most enduring lessons that have shaped his leadership did not come from a business school or a boardroom.

They came from the cattle fields.

“Animals like cows, they hear, they listen, they are disciplined,” he said.

“So if even animals can do that, then why will human beings not understand and listen?”

For the Republic Bank MD, the journey from cowboy to banker has therefore been more than a remarkable career progression. It has been a journey in which the lessons of his childhood have travelled with him from the cattle fields to the corporate boardroom.

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