With a foundation in journalism, a passion for stakeholder engagement and a commitment to community development, the PR Practitioner of the Year 2025 is helping shape corporate communications in Ghana’s energy sector.
For Sandra Amartikar Amarquaye, corporate communications goes beyond managing an organisation’s image or securing media attention.
It is about building trust, nurturing meaningful relationships, telling stories that matter and ensuring that organisations remain accountable to the communities they serve.
This philosophy has shaped her career, taking her from the newsroom of TV3 Network Limited to Karpowership Ghana Company Limited, where she currently serves as Corporate Communications Manager.
Her contributions to strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, reputation management and corporate social responsibility (CSR) earned her national recognition in 2025 when she was named PR Practitioner of the Year by the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) Ghana.
From journalism to public relations
In an interview with The Mirror last Tuesday, Sandra said she began her professional journey in broadcast journalism, joining TV3 as a National Service person in September 2012 and worked as an assistant producer.
She supported current affairs programmes, developed news and feature stories, participated in programmes such as Notebook and covered the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
“In January 2013, I moved into energy reporting and production, where I developed a deeper understanding of Ghana’s power sector. I launched and produced Energy Beat, a programme dedicated to energy issues, and worked on documentaries including The Relevance of the Bui Hydro Project and Ending Dumsor.”
According to her, one of her community-focused stories contributed to TIGO's construction of a five-unit classroom block for African Faith Primary School.
In 2015, she joined Karpowership Ghana, describing the transition from journalism to public relations as a natural progression.
She believes the two professions share essential competencies, including research, critical thinking, information gathering, storytelling and effective communication.
“Journalism continues to shape my approach to PR. It has taught me never to take information at face value, to ask difficult questions, verify facts and appreciate the importance of accuracy and credibility,” she explains.
Building a communications function
Joining Karpowership during the establishment of its Ghana operations presented Sandra with an opportunity to contribute beyond routine communications work.
As one of the early members of the team, she helped establish the Communications Department and develop policies and frameworks to guide its activities.
“With support from the company's team in Istanbul, I contributed to developing the Corporate Communications, Social Media, Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility policies, adapting the parent company's guidelines to Ghana's operating environment,” she told The Mirror.
Her responsibilities also included stakeholder engagement surrounding the arrival of Ghana's first Powership and its subsequent replacement with the 450MW vessel in Tema.
She supported community initiatives such as the refurbishment of the Tema Municipal Library and the establishment of an ICT laboratory at Manhean Anglican Junior High School, alongside education, mentorship, bursary and environmental programmes.
Her growing responsibilities saw her progress from Communications Specialist to Head of Communications in January 2020.
Bringing stakeholders along
One of her defining assignments was coordinating communications and stakeholder engagement for the relocation of Karpowership's 450MW vessel from Tema to Takoradi in 2019.
The move was linked to Ghana's gas utilisation arrangements, including its Take-or-Pay agreement with ENI, which made the utilisation of gas from the Western Region particularly important.
As communications lead, Sandra coordinated engagement involving employees, operational teams, traditional authorities, community representatives and relevant institutions.
Recounting one of her challenges, she said, “With only 15 days to complete the relocation and connect the vessel to the national grid, the exercise required careful planning and swift responses to emerging concerns. A community-related challenge threatened the timeline, but through dialogue and stakeholder coordination, the team resolved the issue and maintained the schedule.”
The experience reinforced her belief that successful projects require more than technical expertise.
“Major projects are not successful through technical execution alone. You must also bring people along. Stakeholder engagement is not an accessory to a project; it is an essential part of its success,” she stated.
Her work subsequently extended to supporting operations in South Africa, Senegal, the Dominican Republic and Brazil, including regional communications initiatives and the company's participation in the West African Power Pool Annual General Assembly in Senegal.
In January 2024, she assumed her current position as Corporate Communications Manager, overseeing strategic communications, media relations, internal communications, stakeholder engagement, CSR and corporate reputation management.
Truth and transparency
Working in the energy sector has strengthened Sandra's appreciation of the importance of crisis preparedness.
Given the impact of electricity generation and supply on households, businesses and the national economy, developments in the industry can quickly attract public attention.
Her approach centres on anticipating risks, monitoring industry developments, learning from other organisations and preparing appropriate response strategies.
She maintains that protecting an organisation's reputation must never come at the expense of honesty.
“There is no amount of communication that can protect an organisation indefinitely if it is not truthful,” she stressed.
Powering education and communities
Beyond reputation management, community development, particularly education, remains one of Sandra's strongest professional interests.
One initiative she is particularly proud of is the Powering Education programme, which connects interventions at basic, secondary and tertiary levels with opportunities for professional development.
Projects include renovating Anglican-Presby School at Essikado, refurbishing the boys' dormitory at Osu Children's Home and introducing mentorship and STEM initiatives that have reached 200 girls.
She said at the tertiary level, scholarships support financially challenged students pursuing engineering programmes at Takoradi Technical University. “Educational tours of the Powership also give engineering students practical exposure to power generation technology.”
“The company has further introduced an all-female internship programme to equip young women with industry experience and professional skills.”
Sandra was of the view that the programme's strength lies in creating a continuous pathway from basic education to employment.
She believes that meaningful social investment should be measured not merely by expenditure or publicity but by the opportunities created, lives improved and sustainability of the interventions.
Recognition and professional development
Sandra's achievements include being named among the Top 10 Women in PR Ghana in 2024 and receiving the Internal Communicator of the Year award at the IPR Ghana Awards for 2023/2024.
She had her secondary education at St Roses Senior High School, Akwatia in the Eastern Region and proceeded to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
She holds master's degrees in Media Management and Public Relations, both from the Ghana Institute of Journalism.
She is an accredited member of IPR Ghana and a member of Women in Energy. She is also pursuing a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Ghana.
Looking ahead
As Ghana's energy sector evolves, Sandra anticipates increasing demand for evidence-based communication, public education, transparency and stronger stakeholder engagement, particularly around energy security, renewable energy, sustainability and affordability.
She hopes to help grow strategic communications in the sector while mentoring young practitioners and encouraging greater specialisation in energy communications.
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