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Professor Akilagpa Sawyer, the Chair of the National Council of the African Peer Review Mechanism; Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, the CEO of the Reroy Group; Dr Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow, the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), and Rev. John Kwesi Darko, the Managing Director of Innolink Security Printing Limited
Professor Akilagpa Sawyer, the Chair of the National Council of the African Peer Review Mechanism; Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, the CEO of the Reroy Group; Dr Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow, the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), and Rev. John Kwesi Darko, the Managing Director of Innolink Security Printing Limited

Four appointed to Board of Governors of Kwame Nkrumah African Genius Awards

Four personalities have been appointed to the Board of Governors of the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah African Genius Awards.

They are Professor Akilagpa Sawyer, the Chair of the National Council of the African Peer Review Mechanism; Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, the CEO of the Reroy Group; Dr Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow, the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), and Rev. John Kwesi Darko, the Managing Director of Innolink Security Printing Limited.

The Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah African Genius Awards is a platform to celebrate excellence and recognise the contribution of the African genius to the making of civilisation through arts and culture, science, technology and innovation, language and humaneness.

Induction

A statement signed by the Executive Director of the Centre for Communications and Culture, Mr Enimil Ashon, said the four had been inducted into office.

It said during the induction ceremony at the board’s first quarterly meeting in Accra, the Board Chair, Mr Kojo Yankah, on behalf of the Grand Patron of the awards, Nana Kobina Nketsia V, the Omanhen of the Essikado Traditional Area, expressed appreciation to the new members for their readiness to serve in the name of Kwame Nkrumah.

It said Mr Yankah noted that the appointment could not have come at a more critical time than the beginning of the scheme’s second African Genius Award year.

“Our search is for personalities who have become cultural and scientific institutions or icons; personalities whose creative efforts have become international references over time and imprinted the African genius on the rest of the world, contributing to a worldwide acknowledgement of the African creative intellect, a revival of indigenous technologies, more dependence by Africans on themselves and empowerment of the African to believe in our own abilities and products,” he said.

The awards scheme is envisioned to be the biggest sustainable honour to the memory of Ghana’s first President and is projected to become a pan-African event in the future.

Background of members

Mr Yankah said Prof. Sawyer had been chair of the steering committees of many organisations established for national and international good.

He listed some of them as STAR-Ghana, the project for tackling illicit financial outflows from Ghana and the Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (GOGIC) and a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana.

Turning to Mrs Quartey-Papafio, the board chair said “this woman is credited with growing Reroy from a table-top business in electrical cable and conductors operating off the Opera Square in Accra into an industrial giant, turning Ghana into a net exporter of these products”.

Dr Anoff-Ntow has close to two decades’ professional experience in broadcasting as a practitioner and scholar. His professional experience spans public broadcasting at GBC, as well as consulting for other media and communication interest across the world.

Rev. Darko is also the Executive Director, Africa, of Christ For All Nations (CFAN) and sits on several boards, including the Assemblies of God University Council and the Assemblies of God Literature Centre.

The new appointments bring to 14 the number of personalities who sit on the board, which has as members Prof. Francis Nkrumah, a former Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and son of the first President; Mr Kwaw Ansah, the internationally acclaimed filmmaker and founder of TV Africa; Prof. Kofi Asare Opoku, the foremost authority in African Studies; Dr Ellen Hagan, the Managing Director of L’Aine Services; Obaapa Adwoa Awindor, the CEO of Premier Productions, and Nana Owusu Afari, the Chair of the Afariwa Group and one-time President of the AGI.

The rest are Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited; Mr Alhassan Andani, the Managing Director of the Stanbic Bank; Mr Daniel Asiedu, the Managing Director of the ADB Bank; Mr David Dontoh, a TV and cultural personality, with Mr Enimil Ashon, a journalist and communications consultant, as the Executive Director.

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