Janet Adu-Poku struggled so badly with laboratory sessions at Yaa Asantewaa Girls’ Secondary School that she repeated a year and switched out of science altogether. That single pivot, from a subject she could not manage into General Arts, set her on a path that now runs through insurance leadership, published authorship and church ministry.
Adu-Poku was born on 4 September 1983 in Takoradi, the second of five children raised by the late Anthony Sammy Amoah and Emma Comfort Amoah in Essikafoambantem No. 1, a Takoradi suburb where the family of six shared a single room. Her father worked away from home for long stretches, leaving her mother, then Regional Commander of the Girls’ Brigade in the Western Region, to run the household and keep church activities central to how the children were raised.
She started school at Bethel Methodist Preparatory in Takoradi, where she served as Girls’ Prefect and competed in spelling bees, then moved to OLA Boarding School in Cape Coast for junior high, captaining the netball team and joining the school’s atenteben group. At Yaa Asantewaa, after the switch to arts, she began ranking among the top students in her class and developed a habit of reading and writing that has stayed with her since. Under sports master Kofi Asante, she also took up athletics, volleyball and basketball, later representing Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in both sports during her Bachelor of Arts studies in English. She went on to play briefly for Ghana’s national basketball team.
Adu-Poku added a Master of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of Cape Coast and a Diploma in Applied Insurance Studies from the Ghana Insurance College, credentials that fed directly into her current role. She now serves as Regional Manager for the Northern Sector of SUNU Assurances Ghana Limited, a position built from the ground up: she joined the company as a Marketing Executive in its Takoradi branch, moved to Kumasi after marriage, then established and ran the Obuasi branch before returning to Kumasi as Branch Manager and eventually rising into regional leadership.
She gave her life to Christ at twelve, a decision she credits to Apostle Mike Aryee and the Sunday School teachers who mentored her, and married Rev. Bernard Stephen Adu-Poku on 2 January 2010. The couple worship at International Central Gospel Church, Shiloh Temple in Obuasi, and have four children together: Sompa, Enyimpa, Adom and Akyedze. Adu-Poku has spoken about periods of rejection, false accusations and being overlooked despite her efforts, experiences she says pushed her to lean more heavily on her faith and on her husband’s support.
Outside her insurance career, she founded WiseUp Consult, a mentorship and counselling platform where she works with people navigating relationship difficulties, addiction and career decisions. She has also published a book, a project she describes as years in the making. Her focus, she says, sits less on professional titles than on helping people, particularly young women in difficult circumstances, find direction and rebuild confidence.
