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Honouring young business leaders …some Ghanaians decorated at ‘Forty under 40 Africa’ awards
The Forty under 40 Africa awards were held recently to honour the continent’s most influential and accomplished business leaders, under the age of 40, from a wider range of sectors.
Young people from 16 African countries were nominated with the most outstanding personalities taking home the ultimate prizes in their respective categories.
Here is a summary profile of four Ghanaians who were decorated for excellence in their chosen professions. They are Rosebird Ama Dadzie (Theatre and Arts female category), Ronald Tagoe,(Science & Technology) Nelson Amo (Investment) and Dr. Kofi Amoa-Abban (Oil & Gas).
Rosebird Ama Dadzie
The realistic pencil artist started drawing at an early age and developed her talent further as her drawings were being complimented by teachers and classmates in school.
Later in life, she studied Painting and Decorating at Takoradi Technical University, and started building a portfolio as her passion for ‘hype-realistic figurative art’ grew and participated in many art and craft exhibition.
She began drawing African celebrities and sometimes spent weeks and months to produce art pieces with strong emotions to connect with her audience. She captures details of her artwork using charcoal, graphite, colour pencil and paint.
Describing her craft as rewarding, she says her artworks are made from “determination and love purposely to groom and educate people,” as she encourages young ladies especially to be self-reliant, have positive self-esteem, as well as gain confidence to face and overcome life’s challenges.
Ronald Tagoe
Ronald attended Presbyterian Boys Secondary School (PRESEC) and continued at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he studied Computer Science and graduated in 2013.
In 2021, he completed his Master’s programme in Advanced Computer Science from the University of Leicester (UK) and passed with distinction. While at KNUST, he co-founded mNotify, a telecommunications company (SMS and Voice Technologies) with the objective of improving information dissemination within corporate organisations and religious bodies.
The company, under his leadership over the past nine years, became one of the giants in the Communications cloud service space with its products spanning across SMS, Voice Technologies, and the USSD infrastructure. mNotify currently has over 20,000 clients across many industries and makes an average annual revenue of USD 350,000.
He is passionate about Artificial Intelligence and considers social commerce as the future of commerce in Africa. This passion led him to start Chatbots Africa to empower African Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to increase their revenue and enhance their customer engagement using Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots (Conversational Commerce).
Chatbots Africa is currently registered in Ghana and in Kenya. Another application he developed is the Sario App, a music-oriented crowdfunding platform in Ghana which won the Lifestyle App Category at the 2018 MTN Apps Challenge.
Nelson Amo
Nelson is experienced in Business Development, Grant Management, Business Model Innovation, Growth Planning, and Project Management in the profit and non-profit sectors.
He is an alumnus of the Oxford Social Finance Programme from the Oxford University of Business School. He has a Master of Science (MSc) in Development Studies from London School of Economic (LSE) with special interest in Business Model Innovation.
In addition to other certificate courses in Finance, he is the Grant Manager/Programme Lead for ‘mLab Ghana’ a project under the Ministry of Communications with funding from the World Bank. The programme aims to promote the development of digital start-ups, and support them to develop and launch their prototypes on the market.
Mr. Amo had previously designed and led enterprise support programmes such as the Innohub Accelerator Programme, Solidaridad West Africa’s Accelerator for Responsible Gold, fLab Incubator for females in tech, the British Council’s ReadyToWork incubator programme, among others.
He has led consulting projects across several industries including health, renewable energy, agribusiness, green housing. He is a Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance Fellow and a Coach of the Africa Entrepreneurship Awards, hosted by the BMCE Bank of Africa in Morocco.
Dr. Kofi Amoa-Abban
Best known as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rigworld Group, he is an indigenous upstream Oil and Gas entrepreneur and a philanthropist.
The company has operations across West Africa and beyond, and has, over the years, proven its international acceptance as a top-quality service provider.
Dr. Amoa-Abban’s exemplary professional competencies have been pivotal in making local content and participation regulations feasible in the upstream oil and gas industry.
Some of his accomplishments as the CEO of Rigworld Group include securing long-term working relationships with global oil and gas giants like Maersk Drilling, Tullow oil, Modec, Eni, Score (Europe) Ltd.
He holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Ghana and a master’s degree from Oslo University, where his interest in the oil industry was piqued following the discovery of oil in Ghana in 2007.
Prior to establishing Rigworld, he had served as a drill crew member with Atwood Hunter and Banda Wells. His contribution and dedication to the oil and gas sector has earned him several awards, apart from the recent recognition at the Africa 40under40 awards.
By Spectator Reporter
The Diaspora Affairs Office at the Office of the President has hosted a delegation of African diaspora women who are in Ghana ahead of a planned Presidential Conferment of Citizenship ceremony.
The Director of Diaspora Affairs, Kofi Okyere Darko, explained in a Facebook post that the visit was a gesture of appreciation by the delegation to the Government of Ghana for its continued efforts to reconnect Africans in the diaspora with their ancestral homeland.
He indicated that the ceremony, scheduled for next Monday, will officially grant Ghanaian citizenship to members of the delegation as part of the country’s broader engagement with the African diaspora.
The delegation was led by Erica Bennett, Founder of the Diaspora Africa Forum.
According to Mr Okyere Darko, her years of advocacy have played an important role in strengthening ties between Africa and people of African descent living abroad.
He noted that the group’s journey towards citizenship represents not only a legal process but also a cultural and spiritual return to their roots.
Also present at the meeting was Natalie Jackson, an attorney who is also expected to receive Ghanaian citizenship during the ceremony. She works closely with renowned civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.
Mr Okyere Darko emphasised that Ghana remains committed to strengthening relationships with the African diaspora and promoting unity, identity, and shared heritage among people of African descent worldwide.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Ghana Tourism Authority is leading Ghana’s participation at ITB Berlin, which opened in Berlin with a vibrant national pavilion highlighting Ghana’s rich cultural heritage, tourism destinations and investment opportunities.
March 5 has been designated as Ghana Day, a special platform to promote Ghana’s languages, cuisine, Kente, festivals and business prospects to the global tourism community. The stand has already drawn strong interest with traditional arts and crafts displays, immersive multimedia presentations and popular Ghanaian snacks.
Seven private-sector players are exhibiting alongside government officials as part of efforts to deepen trade partnerships, expand market access, and attract investment across the hospitality, heritage tourism, ecotourism, and creative arts sectors.
Ahead of the official opening, the Ghana delegation also engaged young Ghanaian investors in Germany in collaboration with V Afrika-Verein and the Ghana Embassy, strengthening diaspora investment linkages and highlighting opportunities within the tourism value chain.
Ghana’s coordinated presence at ITB Berlin 2026 reinforces its strategy to position the country as the Gateway to Africa and a competitive destination for leisure travel and global investment.
