Blog Archives

Felicia Nana Dapaah Gyamfi Ashley

Felicia Nana Dapaah Gyamfi Ashley, Esq. is the Technical Advisor, Human Capital & General Administration at the Ministry of Finance. Previously she was the Vice President, Human Capital, and administration at Databank Financial Services Limited.

Akosua Apea Osafo

Akosua Apea Osafo is a Board Member of MIIF and the chairperson of the Legal Committee.

As an accomplished senior lawyer called to the Ghanaian Bar, and admitted as a Solicitor of England and Wales, Akosua has over 23 years’ legal experience representing companies and institutions investing and working in Ghana and beyond. Her extensive experience covers all facets of corporate and commercial legal practice including Company and Commercial law; Banking and Finance; Energy and Natural Resources, Infrastructure and Real Estate.

In recognition of her expertise and commercial nous, Akosua is highly acclaimed as a recommended Ghanaian lawyer by international legal ranking publications including Legal 500, Chambers and Partners and the International Financial Legal Review (IFLR1000).

Akosua is currently a Partner at the award-winning law firm, JLD & MB Legal Consultancy, where she provides leadership in Banking and Finance, Energy and Natural Resources and Corporate/Commercial matters.

Prior to joining JLD & MB Legal Consultancy, Akosua worked in the UK for over 12 years as an associate and senior counsel respectively at Clifford Chance LLP, Deutsche Bank and ING Bank, London branch. At ING Bank, Akosua was a Legal Director responsible for coverage of the Bank’s lending, payment and cash management services Desks.

Akosua is also a member of the International Bar Association and a member of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIA).

Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah

Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah is the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority. He brings into the organization vast experience in leadership, management, and banking operations. He started his career in the public service with the Ghana Statistical Service as an Assistant Statistician and later worked in various capacities in banking and management.
Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah is a seasoned international banker with almost thirty years of experience in Research, Corporate Banking, SME/Retail Banking, Strategic Leadership, and Strategic Planning and has worked in different countries in Africa and undertaken short term assignments in several countries.
He started his career as an Assistant Statistician with the Ghana Statistical Service engaged in Economic, Social and Statistical Research before joining Standard Chartered Bank, as a Statistician and Research Officer in 1993. For his exceptional performance in the Bank, he gained rapid promotions over a period of 9 years into various senior positions. These include Financial Business Support Manager with responsibility for managing the budgeting and planning function of the Bank; Head of Credit Services for Standard Chartered Bank West Africa and Head of Operations and Technology for Standard Chartered Bank Ghana where he became a member of the Executive Committee of the Bank. He was appointed Group Head of Operations for Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) based in Togo where he supervised the operations functions over all the countries of the Ecobank Group. He was very instrumental in setting up from scratch the Ecobank Operations and Technology hub in Ghana known as eProcess International. He joined Unibank Ghana Ltd in 2007 where he became the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. He left uniBank in 2011 and joined Bank of Africa Group as Managing Director and CEO of Bank of Africa, Tanzania for seven years until he was appointed as Group Executive for Special Projects, including Mergers and Acquisitions, strategic collaborations, and alliances for the Bank of Africa Group and other international banks. He has served on several boards and has contributed significantly to the development of the Finance Industry

Hon. George Mireku Duker

Hon. George Mireku Duker is an Oil, Gas, and Mining Governance expert with a background in Finance. He had his first degree in Accounting. He has also completed Masters in Oil and Gas Management from the University of Plymouth and has also to his merit Executive Certificate in Oil, Gas and Mining Governance from the University of Oxford. He is very conversant with Land Protection, Land Reclamation, and Environmental Protection concepts.
Hon. George Mireku Duker has held various management positions both in the public and private sectors. He worked as the Programme Director for advocacy groups and the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas in Ghana hosted by ISODEC covering wide issues in Petroleum Management and Mining Governance.
Hon. George Mireku Duker has served on various platforms. He was previously the Chairman of the Governing Board of Minerals Income Investment Fund and also served as the Vice-Chair on Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy during the 7th parliament. He has considerable experience in the workings of government has worked as the Special Assistant under two different Ministers at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and later became the representative of the President of Ghana as the Municipal Chief Executive (Mayor) of Tarkwa during president Kufuor’s tenure of office. He has also provided technical support to the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA) in Ghana and was part of a team responsible for the evaluation of the consultants proposed for the MIDA project. He has considerable experience in Natural Resource Governance and holds various certificates in the fields of Energy and Mining policy, from the International Human Resource Development Corporation (IHRDC).
He is currently the Deputy Minister in Charge of Mines at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

Prof Grace Ofori-Sarpong Akuffo

Grace Ofori-Sarpong Akuffo is a Professor of Minerals Engineering, and currently the Dean of School of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana. Her previous positions held in UMaT include Acting Pro Vice Chancellor, Dean of Faculty of Mineral Resources Technology, Vice Dean of Planning and Quality Assurance Unit, Head of Petroleum Engineering Department, Head of Environmental and Safety Engineering Department, and Coordinator of University Examinations. Grace serves as a member on several national boards/councils including the Governing Boards of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) and Ghana Chamber of Mines (GCM) Tertiary Education Fund, the International Advisory Board of African Centre for Mineral Exploration and Development (ACMED) and the Amira Research Consortium. In addition, she
serves/has served on the Governing Boards of Academic City College and University of Mines and Technology, and numerous national and international committees including the Ministerial Committee of Enquiry on Health and Safety in the Mining Industry, the Publication Committee of Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Technical Committees of MIIF Board and GCM Council, the Committee of Independent Reviewers for International PhD Scholarship, Review Committees of OWSD Early Career Fellowship, Association of African University Training Grant and as Associate Editor of the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy. She has also served as organiser, keynote speaker, resource person and moderator for several conferences, workshops and seminars both locally and internationally.

Grace is actively involved in research and consultancy in the areas of precious minerals beneficiation, comminution characteristics, aqueous processing, refractory ore treatment, mine waste treatment, acid mine drainage issues, and myco-hydrometallurgy, among others, and she
has about 100 technical publications to her credit. With about 20 years’ experience in lecturing and research in minerals-related issues and community service, Grace has made a lot of strides including receiving an international award in 2017 from OWSD-Elsevier Foundation for her contribution in science and her positive role in inspiring and mentoring females to reduce the gender gap in STEM. Grace is the Founder and President of Ladies in Mining and Allied Professions in Ghana (LiMAP-Gh), a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS), and West African Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (WAIMM). She is also a member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Engineers (SME), International Association of Engineers, Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and Women in
Mining, Ghana.

Grace holds PhD in Energy and Mineral Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, USA, MSc in Environmental Resources Management and BSc in Metallurgical Engineering, both from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.

Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari

Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari is a distinguished economist and policymaker with almost three decades of experience in central banking and international finance and has held senior positions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of Ghana. He was appointed the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana on August 7, 2017, and currently serves in this role.

Prior to his appointment as First Deputy Governor, Dr Opoku-Afari worked in various positions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for nearly a decade, where he rose to the positions of Deputy Division Chief and Mission Chief. In this role, he led programme negotiations missions and numerous Article IV consultations at the IMF. He was Mission Chief for São Tomé and Príncipe and Mauritius, and also worked on Rwanda, Zambia and Jamaica during his time at the IMF.

In addition, as the Deputy Division Chief in the Regional Studies Division in the African Department of the IMF, he led the production of the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa, one of the IMF’s flagship publications. He also participated in IMF negotiations in several African and Caribbean countries and was a reviewer of policy documents for many developing nations during his time as a Senior Economist in the Strategy, Policy, and Review (SPR) Department of the IMF.

Dr Opoku-Afari’s work at the IMF focused on monetary policy modernization, macro-financial linkages, and debt restructuring. He also co-authored several IMF policy papers on these topics. He has also published extensively on monetary policy, inclusive growth, short-term output indicators in low-income countries, aid effectiveness, capital flows, and real exchange rate dynamics. And more recently, on the role of digitalization in supervision, fintech, innovation and financial inclusion.

Prior to his tenure at the IMF, Dr Opoku-Afari worked for 13 years at the Bank of Ghana, where he rose to the position of Head of the Special Studies Division in the Research Department and later served as Special Assistant to the Governor. He was also a member of the Ghana Government’s Capital Markets Committee from 2006 to 2008 and played an integral part in the first Eurobond issuance by Ghana in 2007.

Dr Opoku-Afari holds a first degree in Economics and Statistics, an MPhil in Economics from the University of Ghana, Legon, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. His expertise and leadership have been widely recognized, and he has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career.

He is currently a Fellow (FGA) of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB), the Institute of Directors, Ghana (IoD), and chairs the Advisory Board of the College of Humanities at the University of Ghana.

Kow Abaka Essuman

Kow Abaka Essuman is the Legal Counsel to the President of the Republic of Ghana. He is a lawyer by profession, qualified to practise law in three jurisdictions: England and Wales, New York State, and Ghana. Before public service, Kow practised law in Ghana’s top and largest law firm, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa and Ankomah. He rose to Senior Associate in the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution practice group within four years of joining the firm. He represented several top corporate clients during this period, including mining, telecommunications, real estate companies, and a billion-dollar hedge fund in New York in a dispute against Argentina. In addition to practising law, Kow worked with Web Legal Education and New York Bar Company to prepare candidates for the New York Bar Exam. He also lectured the law of Trusts on the University of London, Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree offered by Zenith University College in Accra. He was a part-time lecturer at the Ghana School of Law, tutoring students in Advocacy and Professional Ethics. Kow is a former Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in England. Since 2017, he has served as a Conciliator on the Panel of Conciliators for the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes of the World Bank. Kow is a Founding Board Member of the State Interests and Governance Authority and the Minerals Income Investment Fund.

In 2013, Kow was selected as a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum. In June 2015, he was chosen as one of 80 Africans to represent the Global Shapers Community at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. In May 2015, Kow was featured and described as “Internationally Known and Locally Accepted” in the Future of Ghana’s 30 Under 30 Maiden Edition. In June 2015, he was featured on the front page of the widely read Business and Financial Times under a story titled “Smart Suits, Fine Legal Brains.” He has appeared on various radio and television shows, including Speak Up, an anti-corruption advocacy show on ETV Ghana, and Just The Law. This show educates the public about the law on Viasat One television. In 2017, Kow was voted the Most Influential Young Ghanaian and was nominated as part of the Class of 2018, 100 Most Influential Young Persons of African Descent under the auspices of the United Nation’s International Decade for People of African Descent. In December 2019, he was presented with an Honorary Award by the President of Ghana and Chief Patron of the Head of State Award Scheme for his contributions and support towards the growth and development of young people in Ghana through the Award Scheme.

Kow was educated at the University of Westminster and BPP Law School, both in London in the United Kingdom and Cornell University in New York, where he obtained a Masters-in-Law degree (LL.M.) with honors in International Mergers and Acquisitions and Financial Institutions. Kow holds an Executive Education Certificate in Oil, Gas and Mining Governance from the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. He also has an Executive Education Certification in Negotiation and Leadership from Harvard Law School. In 2020, he won the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Westminster. Kow is a Christian and an ardent advocate for Jesus Christ. Even with his busy schedule, Kow finds the time to spread the Gospel through his writings on social media, on his blog, in the pulpit and at Christian gatherings. He is married to Lady-Ann, and they have two children, Papa Kwesi and Ewuradwoa.