Bernice Offei spent 18 years at Standard Chartered before giving herself fully to gospel music

For nearly two decades, she balanced ledger books and lyrics, corporate deadlines and divine calling. Then, in 2016, Bernice Offei made the choice that would define her legacy: she walked away from the bank to follow the music.

Most people knew her as the voice behind “Life Is Short” and “Hold On”—songs that echoed through churches and radio stations across Ghana. What they may not have known was that for 17 of those years, she was also a banker, rising to become head of the Card Centre at Standard Chartered Bank Ghana . The corporate world was never the plan she sketched for herself. It was, in her own telling, an unexpected detour that God used.

Offei’s path to Standard Chartered was almost accidental. She had followed her husband to the UK for his PhD, picked up a master’s in Information Technology almost reluctantly, and returned to Ghana anxious about finding work. A devotional reading about a little boy who simply held his father’s hand—trusting without knowing the destination—prompted her to take her CV to one place. She was hired on the spot . It was the late 1990s, and the bank needed help preparing for the Y2K computer glitch. She stayed for nearly two decades.

All the while, the music never stopped. Offei had been writing and performing since her days at Achimota School, mentored by Reverend Owusu Afriyie of the Youth Alongside For Christ Association . Her debut album, “We Are Victors,” arrived in 1991. Six albums and more than 40 songs followed, including the beloved “Kaa She Gbeyei” and “Nyame Kokroko” . In 2009, her album “Life” earned her two of Ghana’s highest music honors: Best Female Vocal Performance and Songwriter of the Year at the Ghana Music Awards .

But the double life had a cost. In April 2016, she announced on Accra FM’s “Gospel 360” that she had resigned two months earlier. “I was a banker until very recently that I stopped,” she said. “It’s barely two months since I left my job” . When asked if she would minister for the rest of her life, her answer was quiet and certain: “As the Lord gives the way, yes I hope so” .

She was 54 when she finally gave herself fully to the calling she had carried since her teenage years. It was not a decision born of frustration or failure. It was a homecoming. The woman who once held her father’s hand without knowing where she was going had finally arrived.

Bernice Offei passed away on September 12, 2026, at the age of 63 . She is remembered not only for the songs that comforted a nation but for the quiet courage of a woman who spent 18 years in a boardroom before stepping into the fullness of her purpose.

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