Leadership Programs

Class II: Sankofa Class

Hajara Adeola

Hajara Adeola is the founder and CEO of Lotus Capital Ltd., an asset management company dedicated to ethical investments. Prior to this she was a director with UBS Warburg, heading their London Islamic Finance Desk. Prior to joining UBS, she was a convertible bond research analyst at BNP Paribas, London, where her primary responsibility was to analyze, write, and publish daily and quarterly research on European convertible bonds. Hajara holds a masters degree in finance from Durham University, where she specialized in Islamic Finance. She also holds an MBA in international management from Exeter University and a bachelor of science degree in pharmacology from King's College, London. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Fabian Ajogwu

Fabian Ajogwu is a senior partner of Kenna & Associates, Nigeria, and heads the firm's Commercial and Corporate Practice Group including the Energy and Natural Resources Unit. He has extensive experience in set-ups, restructuring, and takeovers of corporations, having worked on several foreign direct investment projects in the oil, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications industries. He lectures Business Law and Negotiations at the Lagos Business School, Pan-African University. Fabian holds a master's degree in law and an MBA from the IESE Business School, Barcelona. He also has degrees from the University of Lagos and the University of Nigeria. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; he is involved in numerous professional bodies and is an active volunteer for a range of civic organizations. He is the author of the book Corporate Governance in Nigeria in Nigeria: Law & Practice and co-author of Legal & Regulatory Aspects of Commerce. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Estelle Akofio-Sowah

Estelle Akofio-Sowah is the country lead for Google Ghana. She previously served as the managing director of BusyInternet, a multi-million dollar company including ISP, cybercafé and business incubator, leading a team of 80 professionals in delivering IT-enabled services to an average of 1000 clients per day. Her previous work experience includes working as conference and banquet manager at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Ghana’s only five-star hotel, and as project manager of the Natioanl Poverty Reduction Program at ProNet, the local NGO partner to WaterAid UK. Estelle has a degree in economics and development studies from the University of Sussex. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Ace Ankomah

Ace Anan Ankomah is a partner at Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah, a law firm in Accra, where he is head of the litigation and dispute resolution department. He is also a senior lecturer in civil procedure at the Ghana School of Law. Ace is a member of the Ethics and Disciplinary Council of the Ghana Journalists Association and the Legal Committee of the Ghana Bar Association. He has won the Law Students' Union/Ghana Bar Association Prize for Outstanding Academic Performance in 1991; the Law Foundation of Ontario Award, Graduate Studies Dean's Award; and Queen's Graduate Awards, (1993-1994) from the Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is the co-founder and Chairman of CLEF, an educational foundation committed to providing financial support and mentoring for brilliant but needy students. Ace is a graduate of the University of Ghana, Legon (LLB) and was admitted to the Ghana Bar in 1992. Ace also has an LLM in international taxation from the Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is a regular speaker in conference and media programs and an advocate for a better Ghana through the pursuit of excellence at all levels. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Olusoji Apampa

Soji Apampa is CEO of RTA Intelligence Ltd, a business intelligence and reputation risks management company. Prior to that, he was managing firector of SAP Nigeria Ltd and regional manager for West Africa for SAP, where he worked for eight years. Soji also co-founded The Convention on Business Integrity in 1997. He is a director and volunteer consultant for both INTEGRITY and the Convention on Business Integrity. Soji graduated with a bachelor’s in engineering (Honors) in civil and structural engineering from Sheffield University and MS in governance and finance from John Moores University. He was appointed to the UN Global Compact's International Working Group on the 10th Principle (anti-corruption) in 2008. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Kobina Asmah

Kobina Asmah Jr. is founder and CEO of Type Company Limited, a graphic design and print firm. Between 1988-93, he worked with the Non-Formal Education Division, Ministry of Education as graphic designer and served as the head of the Print Materials Unit, responsible for the design of functional literacy materials for the National Literacy Programme. During this period, he also served as a design consultant to WaterAid Ghana, UNICEF, DANIDA, and other NGOs. He started his career in 1983, first working as a graphic designer with Yenok Decorative Wood Products in Takoradi. He holds an MBA from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and a BA in graphic design from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi. He has also received training in desktop publishing and computer graphics at the Elmhirst Centre, the Dartington College of Arts in Totnes, England and Bristol University, UK. Coby's wonderful wife Stephanie has supported his dream from its inception in 1993. He shares his achievements with his lovely wife, daughter, Lisa and son Miguel. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Shirley Ayorkor Botchway

Shirley Ayorkor Botchway is a member of Parliament for the Weija Constituency in Ghana. She serves on the appointments, gender, defense, and interior committees. Previously, Shirley served as the deputy minister in charge of trade at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Between March 2005 and July 2007 she served as deputy minister of information and foreign affairs. Before entering frontline politics in 2004, she ran a successful marketing communications company, Dynamic Communications. Between 2003 and 2004 she was a communications consultant at the Ministry of Tourism, Ghana, in charge of communications for the modernization of the capital city. Her experience includes working with WorldSpace Ghana Limited as sales manager and in different organizations including Divestiture Implementation Committee in Ghana, Glaxo Group Research, and Hodge Recruitment in London. She is a product of University of Ghana Business School, University of Westminster, London, Ghana Institute of Journalism, GIMPA and Pitman Central College, London. She holds an MBA (project management option), an MA in public communication, certificate in marketing management, and diploma in public relations and advertising. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Kofi Bentil

Kofi Bentsi Bentil is a lecturer in marketing, entrepreneurship, and business strategy at Ashesi University. He is also the CEO of Finssol Limited, a business strategy consulting and training company. He previously co-founded ABM Links Limited, a business process outsourcing company. He worked in management in the IT and insurance industries previously before embarking on a lecturing and consulting career. He is currently is looking to start a technology company to provide financial services over mobile phone networks. He holds an MBA in marketing, and is married to Cecilia with three children, Adjoa, Efua, and Baaba. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

John Enelamah

John.C. Enelemah is executive director of Apostles in the Marketplace, a network committed to advancing leadership principles in the marketplace and building a platform for change agents in society. He is also senior pastor of World Revival Church as well as president and founder of Endtimes Revival Ministries Inc. both based in Lagos, Nigeria. He is the founder of the Employment Bureau, an outfit that practically equips people for their life's assignment. The Bureau helps students and participants discover and pursue their God-ordained purpose. A crusader, John has carried the message of reformation and has being involved in outreaches in many nations of the earth including Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, The Netherlands, Zambia, Malawi and the United States of America. He also initiated and led the Akpese Village project that has been actively involved in rehabilitating and feeding street youth. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Femi Lijadu

Femi Lijadu is the chairman of the Nigerian Network of Non-Governmental Organisations (NNNGO), which is a voluntary umbrella body for NGOs in Nigeria. In his early days, Femi joined one of the largest retail banks in Nigeria as part of a take-over team and rose to be an executive director before resigning in 2002 to complete the Sloan Fellowship MS Programme at London Business School. He is a member of the board of the Hygeia Community Health Plan, which aims to increase access to quality basic healthcare for currently uninsured groups, using a public-private partnership model. Femi Lijadu completed his first degree in law at Durham University and holds a masters degree in law from University College, London University. He is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Nana Oye Lithur

Nana Oye Lithur is regional coordinator for Africa at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. She has conducted extensive research and advocacy on governance, reproductive and political rights of women, and coordinated projects on human rights. She is presently an advisory member of the International Consortium on Realising Reproductive Rights and a member of the steering committee of the International Consortium on Medical Abortion. She is an executive member of the International Freedom of Information Advocates Network, the Africa Freedom Of Information Centre, an advisory member of the R3M Advisory Committee, Ghana and the Coalition on the Donorship to Ownership project with the Planned Parenthood Association, Ghana. Nana Oye holds an LLB from the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, and a Masters in law (LLM) from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Sandra Mbanefo-Obiago

Sandra Mbanefo-Obiago is executive director of Communicating for Change, a non-profit media organization based in Lagos, Nigeria, which she set up in 1998 to help raise Africans' awareness of important social issues. She is a development communications specialist and documentary film producer. Her primary focus is on developing Nigeria's creative industries, organizing conferences, workshops, and symposia for Nigeria's growing film industry. She received a bachelor of education from the University of Manitoba, Canada and a master of arts degree in telecommunications from Michigan State University. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Sheila Minkah-Premo

Sheila Minkah-Premo is managing consultant at Apex Lawconsult, a legal consultancy in Accra. The firm provides corporate law services as well as family law services and land securitization. As a development consultant, she has worked with DANIDA, the Friedrich Norman Foundation, African Women Lawyers Association, and Women in Leadership and Development (WILAD). She studied as a fellow of the Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) component of the Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program, based at that University. With her active involvement, the Ghana alumnae of the program (LAWA-Ghana Alumnae Incorporated), has undertaken several legislative advocacy programs including drafting of legislation to address domestic violence in Ghana. She holds a degree from the University of Ghana, Legon and a masters in law (LLM) from the Georgetown University Law Centre (GULC), Washington D.C., in the United States of America, where she focused on human rights law. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Bashir Mundi

Bashir Yusuf Mundi is assistant director at the Da'wah Institute of Nigeria, an information, training, and research unit of the Islamic Education Trust. He supervises and prepares research work for publication, and conducts intensive courses on Islam and dialogue. He also serves as a director and United States representative with the Development Initiative of West Africa (DIWA) and as coordinator of operations for ProStart, a life-skills training and consultancy firm based in Minna, Nigeria. He has served as imam and youth director for the Al-Huda Islamic Center in Athens, Georgia, USA, and director of education and Training for the Institute of Islamic Information and Education, Chicago. He has made several presentations at interfaith fora, in universities, mosques, and churches throughout the US, and hosted the television program, "Your American Muslim Neighbor" on Chicago's CAN-TV. Bashir holds a bachelors degree in physics with computer science from the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria, and has attended graduate courses in world religions at the University of Georgia, USA. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Franklyn Nlerum

Franklyn Nlerum is vice president and legal counsel at African Capital Alliance, a private equity firm. In addition to this, Franklyn is a resource person for the Financial Institutions Training Centre and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He is a lawyer, with interest in corporate law, law and finance, law and technology and compliance and risk management. Franklyn trained at the University of Nigeria and obtained graduate degrees in law from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada and Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. He was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 1989. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Olusegun Olujobi

Olusegun Olujobi is a consultant at Africa Capital Alliance, a leading private equity firm. Prior to his joining Africa Capital Alliance he had a career spanning twenty years with Accenture. His last role was as the firm's head of oil and gas and utilities business in Nigeria. He is passionate about education, leadership development and the role of free enterprise in national transformation. He is chairman of the board of LEAP Africa and secretary of the board of The Scripture Grace Foundation. He is a co-founder of the Apostles in the Market place, a network committed to advancing leadership principles in the market place. Olusegun graduated with a First Class honors degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Lagos. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah

Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah hosts a four-hour news and interactive radio show on JOY FM, the leading radio station in Accra, Ghana. His show, which is syndicated on affiliate stations across the country, leads major discussions on Public Policy and governance in Ghana. Kojo recently undertook a radio documentary for the BBC, which focused on why Ghanaians migrate to the UK and other countries outside Africa. Kojo also works as a finance strategy consultant with an Accra based management consultancy, FINSSOL. A bachelor of commerce graduate from the University of Cape Coast, in Ghana, Kojo is currently pursuing ACCA certification. He retains a penchant for entrepreneurship after the successfully starting and later selling his newspaper company while in University. Prior to his current job, he worked as a treasury analyst at British American Tobacco Ghana Ltd. He speaks at many leadership events to challenge the youth to make a positive impact in their environment. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Uwa Osa-Oboh

Uwa Osa Oboh is chief responsibility officer at ReStral Ltd, a leadership and management services firm that specializes in the provision of strategic information to drive organizational performance, the development of strategy and change plans, and the provision of capacity building services for organizational growth and development. Prior to joining ReStraL, she engaged in private legal practice after which she took up employment as a credit officer, eventually heading the leasing and loan syndication desk in a merchant bank in the early 1990s. Uwa is a University of Benin Scholar and graduated from the Nigerian Law School as the best student of the year (1988). Uwa also holds an MBA from the University of Benin. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Yaw Perbi

Dr. Yaw Perbi is CEO of the HuD Group, a human development NGO. He is also a medical doctor at the Military Hospital in Accra. He has founded Mutual Medics, a collective investment fund for paramedics; Medics Investment Club, which he started as a medical student; and NEOparadigms Ltd., a mass media and communications company. He is also a widely known author, publisher, preacher, motivational speaker, broadcaster, educator, investor-entrepreneur and life coach for scores of young people. He has written 15 books, including the highly recommended Financial Whizzdom, A++, Youth Power! and X-Sense. Yaw has given talks in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, the US, Guatemala, Hungary, Canada, Mexico, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Japan. He was recently nationally recognized and honored as the Newmont Ghana Highest Achievement Award winner by the vice president of the Republic of Ghana at the Youth Achievers Awards 2006 held by the Millennium Excellence Awards Foundation. He is happily married to Naa Anyele with one handsome son, Nana Agyina. He is a Fellow of the second class of the African Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Patrick Reis

Patrick "Tunde" Reis is a brigadier general in the Nigerian Army. He served as the executive chairman of Nigeria's Federal Housing Authority (FHA) in 2007. Prior to this, he established a retirement housing scheme for officers and soldiers. He obtained a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the University of Lagos and a master's degree in architecture. 'Tunde received a Ph.D from the Architectural Association Graduate School in London. He has received the highest medal for unblemished long service, the Grand Service Service Star, the "Most Distinguished Alumni of the Lagos Business School" award, the national honour of Officer Order of the Niger, and the Chief of Army Staff's commendation. In collaboration with his wife, Yinka, and their four daughters, 'Tunde started the Borikan Educational Foundation, aimed at providing extra tuition, scholarship and mentoring for primary school children from indigent illiterate parents. He is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Shola Safo-Duodu

Shola Safo-Duodu is head of corporate affairs for Barclays Ghana Limited. Shola joined Barclays in 1997 as marketing manager and was responsible for setting up the marketing and public relations department of the bank. From 2001 to 2005, she was the head of retail banking and was a member of the Country Management Committee. Before joining Barclays Bank, Shola worked in various marketing roles in Unilever Ghana Limited, during which time she was seconded to Unilever South Africa for two years as senior brands manager (personal products) in the Durban office. Shola holds a BA from the University of Ghana, Legon; an MA from Pembroke College in the University of Cambridge; and is a chartered marketer with the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK. Shola is currently the national vice president of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) and is a board member of the Nature Conservation and Research Centre (NCRC), an NGO that specializes in ecotourism and nature conservation in Ghana. Shola is married with two children. She likes travelling, reading, and singing. She is a Fellow of the second class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.