Sam Korankye Ankrah

Royalhouse Chapel International held its first service in an Accra nursery school, with two dozen people present, half of them children. Under Apostle General Sam Korankye Ankrah it has grown to about 30,000 members and 120 local assemblies.

Early years

He was born on 23 February 1960 to J. O. Ankrah and Victoria Ziddah, the 22nd of his father's 24 children. His Presbyterian mother had him baptised Samuel. He attended Accra High School and St. John's Grammar School, and it was the touring gospel band Joyful Way Incorporated that first drew him towards ministry. At the University of Ghana he started the Showers of Blessing evangelistic ministry in 1984. He later trained at the Haggai Institute in Singapore and at GIMPA.

Building the church

He was in the Netherlands in 1991 when, he says, God told him on 19 June to go home to full-time ministry. Before he returned in November 1992, his wife, Rev. Rita Korankye Ankrah, began Sunday services at the GES Model Nursery School. He took charge in January 1993. The church moved to the ADB canteen in 1994 and into its own premises in November 2000, by which time it had about 5,000 members. It now runs foreign missions, a Christian leadership college and social services. Within the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council he has held the post of first vice president.