Jacob Kwaw Wilson Sey (10 March 1832 – 22 May 1902), also known as Kwaa Bonyi, was a colonial era Fante artisan, farmer, philanthropist, nationalist and the first recorded indigenous multi-millionaire on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana).

[6][7] Some academic scholars regard Sey as the "first real architect and financier towards Ghana's independence" and the ARPS as "the first attempt to institutionalize nationalist sentiment in the then Gold Coast.

[1][2][3][4] Sey co-founded and then became the first president of Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS), formed to campaign and voice local opposition to the 1897 Lands Bill being considered by the British colonial government.

[1][2][3][4][6] Prominent members of the group were the upper-class, Western-educated, wealthy elites who were comfortable with their indigenous roots, such as J. W. de Graft-Johnson, J. P. Brown, J. E. Casely Hayford, and John Mensah Sarbah.

[1][2][3][4][6] On behalf of chiefs and people of the country, he led a delegation of the Society, consisting of Thomas Freeman together with Cape Coast merchants Edward Jones and George Hughes, to petition Queen Victoria to abrogate the Bill.

[1][2][3][4] The ARPS had legal aid from a Sierra Leonean solicitor, Edward F. Hunt, with assistance from a team of barristers from a London-based law firm, Messrs. Ashurst, Crips Co., and a certain Mr.

[1][2][3][4] Sey encouraged the chiefs who had signed the petition to donate land for the establishment of other "Victoria Parks" in other Gold Coast cities and towns, including Saltpond, Winneba, Elmina, Axim, Accra, Koforidua and Kyebi.

[1][2][3][4] After the successful mission, Jacob Wilson Sey dedicated the rest of his life to philanthropy to help improve the lives of his compatriots in Cape Coast and the Central Province.

[1][2][3][4] The government imposed certain conditionalities: "If the native farmers from Cape Coast and the Central Province could produce an annual cocoa output of two tonnes within a certain time frame, the project will be initiated.

"[1][2][3][4] Sey and Sarbah injected personal cash to stimulate the growth of cocoa and palm oil farming but were ultimately unsuccessful in meeting the set conditions which would have required each farmer to increase production output by 5600 percent.

[1] Prominent barristers such as Casely-Hayford, Ribeiro, Charles Bannerman, Hutton-Mills, Renner and Sapara-Williams, of that era moved their law practices to other cities such as Accra, Axim and Takoradi.

[1][2][3][4] His foresight in leading and financing the ARPS mediation efforts forestalled land reclamation-related bloodshed that characterized similar nationalist campaigns in other African countries such as Zimbabwe.

[1][2][3][4] The Oguaa Traditional Council of Cape Coast renovated the "Gothic House", a colonial building that belonged to Jacob Wilson Sey, into a multi-purpose modern palace.