Roger Obeng Koranteng (Profile) - Surviving on less than 100 dollars a month

Roger Obeng Koranteng (born 15 August 1999) is a Ghanaian who owns one of the fast-growing online audio streaming platforms in Ghana.

Early Life

I was born and grew up in southern Ghana. My mother Janet Ampadu is a trader and my father Charles Obeng is an instructor. I have lived with my two other brothers: Lester Obeng Ankomah and Percy Obeng Akrofi. I spent my early childhood with my parents at Taifa and later moved to settle at Achimota, both suburbs of Accra. I started my elementary school at Greenhill International School, a school located in Dome where my father thought.

After completing basic school, I decided to study Business at Accra Academy, a non-denominational day and boarding boys' school in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, located in Bubuashie near Kaneshie, to gain in-depth knowledge in the business cycle to manage and own a technology company.

Life at Accra Academy

Accra Academy is one of the most prestigious schools in the country. I started as a day student, waking up early each morning and commuting to school by bus. Although it was a long stressful and uncomfortable journey, I have always enjoyed the fresh morning air and the opportunity to catch up on some reading.

I was quite popular among my classmates. Although I was a gifted athlete, I spent more time on my studies than enhancing my talent, and I participated in several sports competitions. However, as the workload increased, I found it difficult to balance my studies and extracurricular activities and had to eventually quit playing table tennis.

Post High School

I had just completed high school and was eager to further my studies. However, my dreams were halted due to financial challenges. I was unable to proceed to college immediately, and I knew that I needed to work and save up enough money to continue my education.
One day, my mother introduced me to a friend who owned a food processing company that was hiring workers. Without hesitation, I was hired and spent about 10 months at the company.

After Admission to the University

I had always dreamed of going to university and was determined to succeed, despite the challenges I faced. One of those challenges was the distance I had to travel to attend the University for Development Studies in the north of the country

Every three months, I would make the long journey by bus, enduring a grueling twelve-hour ride to reach the campus. But I never complained. I knew that this was my chance to make something of myself.

Despite the hardships I faced, I remained a cheerful and fun-loving person. I had a quick wit and a ready smile, and I always had a joke to tell or a funny story to share. Yet, for reasons unknown to me, some of my fellow students didn't seem to like him.

How Did Roger Get Involved in Computers?

As young as 10 years, I became curious about IoT, I had always loved to tinker with things and figure out how they worked. One day, when I was just 11 years old, my dad brought home a computer from work.

I became immediately fascinated by the machine and spent hours playing with it, clicking buttons, and exploring different programs. This was when I started to teach myself how to use the computer, experiment with different software and learn new skills. Despite my young age, the knowledge and skills I acquired quickly surpassed those of my peers. I was always eager to help others with their computer problems and would often spend hours troubleshooting and fixing their issues.

As I grew older, my passion for computers only grew stronger. I started reading books about programming and coding online and creating my software programs. By the time I was a teenager, I was already an expert in several programming languages and had built my website with WordPress and Wix as of 2014. Even though I loved technology I decided to pursue business and management in high school. I later went on to college to earn a degree in Accounting. With my skills and knowledge, I was able to create innovative new software and help push the boundaries of what was possible in the tech world.

How did Crazy Market start?

Insult Turned Into A Product

Many people have wondered where the name Crazy Market began, On one faithful day there was this heated argument on a WhatsApp page which eventually led to me being kicked out of the WhatsApp group. Later, an unknown person texted privately telling me how Crazy I behaved and that God should save me. Later in the evening, I announced my intention to start an e-commerce store.

Crazy Market started as a classified site and gained huge traffic around the globe but unfortunately had little patronage from its country of origin, I guess people didn't like the name attached to it.

Currently, Crazy Market is affiliated with Microsoft for Startups where it receives mentorship and cloud resources to keep its services running.

Crazy Beats

Growing to Become One of Ghana's Biggest Audio Streaming Sites

CrazyBeats is the second online music platform to be launched in Ghana, although there were several music downloading sites, that were in existence before Crazy Beats. The music platform was solely set up for streaming African tunes; since its inception in August 2021 - it has grown to become one of the biggest in Africa. To promote African music I took it upon myself to set up an online streaming platform, where I shared most jamming African tunes. 

How My Writing Passion Led Me to Set Up This Blog

Growing up in a less privileged home, I had always loved to jot down things that happened around me. Fast forward to 2021, I wrote my first book; that was when I thought I could turn my writing hobby into something great. This led me to set up my blogging site and fully launch it in November last year.

I must agree that I might have used some unethical ways in promoting my platform which might include sending cold emails to specialized market segments. 

What's next with Crazy Market

Currently, Crazy Market has been shut down to enable me to rebuild the platform as I lack the Infrastructure and financial backing. I'm looking forward into integrating crypto payment API and work towards fully iincorporating the business to begin full operations

My Personal Thoughts Been a Kid from Africa

With the economic conditions going from bad to worst in my country and as a young graduate who must go through a 1-year service with a monthly allowance or salary of about 559 cedis (48.00 United States Dollars) can be descriped as appalling. Trying to live on 48 dollars a month has been one of the toughest struggles most graduates will have to get through including me. 

Personally, not being able to secure a job because I have to go through a year of service has been one of the set backs in my life. One may ask what are you doing at your 1-year service?. To be sincere I have always felt that I have already spent 6 months of my life running errands.

As a black kid from Africa, aside been likely to face discrimination amongst white folks I must say one can't comprehend the level of hate among Africans. We live in a space where there is so much hate, aggression and envy among ourselves.