I’m Ekow Mensah

Ekow is named amongst the 100 Most Influential Young Africans, 50 Most Influential Young Ghanaians, 60 Young Leaders in Ghana by CocaCola, Top 100 Speakers in Ghana and a Finalist Nominee for the African Leadership Academy Anzisha Prize for African Entrepreneurship Catalyst Award sponsored by MasterCard Foundation mostly for his extensive work on student & youth development, business & entrepreneurship development, women economic empowerment, capacity building in Gender, Diversity and Inclusion (DEI) and Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and social enterprise policy development and advocacy.

As a British Council consultant for 8 years, Ekow worked with and trained over 5000 youth in Ghana on entrepreneurship, personal development and relevant skills acquisition. Obtaining training in Senegal and South Africa by Coventry University, UK and Imagine Education UK on essential skills set and innovation in teaching and learning, Ekow was part of the consultant selected to train teachers in several regions in Ghana as part of Ghana Government’s overhaul of the curriculum and the introduction of the new skills based curriculum by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA).

In 2018, Ekow was selected as a Committee Member of Gender & Development in Africa (GADIA); an Office of the President of Ghana Initiative for Women Economic Empowerment in Africa as the AU Gender Champion. Ekow worked closely with other Gender specialists to develop policies and initiatives to promote gender equality, women’s economic empowerment & women entrepreneurship development.

As a member of the team that implemented the Akoma project by erstwhile UT Bank as part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility project to support the growth of women’s businesses and careers, Ekow worked with other team members to enhance the capacity of women to start and build thriving businesses and enhance their career growth and prospects.

As the regional coordinator of the Social Enterprise Network and consultant on National Youth Entrepreneurs Chamber, Ekow is actively working with others on the formulation, stakeholder consultations and passing of both the Social Enterprise Policy and Ghana Startup Bill.

As a mentor, Ekow runs the Ambitious Students’ Mentorship Program with over 240 students in 19 universities in Ghana and 50 other mentors building the capacity of the students and guiding them to make the right career choices and make them job-ready. Over the years, Ekow has been a mentor on several programs and organizations including Ashesi University, YALI RLC West Africa Emerging Leaders Program, EU: Africa Post Crisis Journey, Kosmos Innovation Center Agritch Challenge, Founder’s Institute and Lancaster University.