Spotlight interview – Nana Osae Addo-Dankwa

Please briefly share with us your professional history.

My name is Nana Osae Addo-Dankwa and I am a licensed Investment Advisor with hands-on experience in company set-ups, consulting, treasury, investment and portfolio management. I have over 20 years’ working experience comprising ten years of ‘C’ level management responsibility in the Financial Services Sector of Ghana. I have built a corporate leadership credential in motivating and coaching over the years.

Being a founder of a regulated company, I ensure that we are compliant at all times. Prior to that, I served briefly as the Managing Director of Express Savings and Loans Company Limited in the early years of 2013 during which period I increased the institution’s deposit mobilization to an unprecedented level. I was one of the pioneering Management Team Members of Bond Savings & Loans Limited (then Bond Financial Services) in 2008, where I set up and headed the treasury department and had oversight responsibility of the company’s marketing and sales department. I worked as a money market dealer at Fidelity Bank (then Fidelity Discount House) and I am credited with establishing and setting up the systems for their very profitable treasury bills & bonds business.

Currently, I am involved in initiating, driving and implementing board directives and objectives as CEO of InvestEye. I am a member of the Institute of Directors of Ghana (IOD) and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments U.K. I am also a trained paraprofessional counsellor and a member of the Ghana Psychological Council. As a way of giving back to society I have been an active member of Rotary International a non-governmental global humanitarian organisation for the past eight years.

How did you hear about the RECIRCULATE project and what has been your experience engaging with the project so far?

I first heard about the RECIRCULATE project from Lancaster University and Lancaster University Ghana’s network. I am an alumni of Lancaster University Management School where I completed an MBA course in 2007 so I guess the university saw that as a very active alumni I would be willing and interested in helping to drive change through the RECIRCULATE project.

Engaging with the RECIRCULATE project was a very insightful and revolutionary experience. It transformed my imagination and gave me a different perspective to the diverse approaches and collaborations one can employ in impacting his or her community and environment positively. This interestingly lies parallel with the cardinal philanthropic principles of Rotary.

How are you celebrating or how will you be celebrating the Ghana Founders` Day?

This day always calls for sober reflection. I will reflect on how far Ghana has come as a nation, the contributions of our departed forefathers and founders and what I as an individual can add to their good works and the legacy I will one day leave behind.

On the family front we will mark the day indoors as a family with some indoor fun games and also find time to watch a good documentary about my Ghanaian and African Hero of the Century Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the torchbearer of Ghana’s independence.

What would you say are the two biggest challenges you face in Ghana in your line of work?

The financial sector clean-up and revocation of licences in 2019 by the government impacted our business negatively, not to mention the devastating effect of COVID-19. Investors’ confidence is currently at rock-bottom, panic terminations and withdrawal of investments are on the rise while clients are reluctant to entrust their funds with fund managers for investing. Our economy was close to hitting a recession following these challenges. That notwithstanding the financial sector clean-up has made the financial sector robust and the remaining financial institutions such as InvestEye are now more resilient to do business.

Are there opportunities you think can be explored bearing in mind these challenges you highlighted?

Although investors’ confidence is at its lowest point, it will pick up as an economic cycle is made up of peaks and troughs and it is a robust financial sector that drives growth in every economy. Investing in the financial sector at this stage will be a very smart move. The pandemic also exposed the gaps in our basic medical and health care facilities as a nation leaving a lot of opportunities to be explored in that space. The telecommunications organizations are those who made a kill both during and post COVID–19. The cost of data went up as people increasingly found the need to work remotely and from home using more data in an attempt to socially distance. It is another sector worth investing in.

Any final thoughts about your country Ghana?

Ghana has come a long way but we certainly are not there yet. There is still a lot we all have to do individually and collectively as a people before we can attain and achieve the enviable challenging heights of first world. It is my fervent hope and prayer that government will soon procure the needed vaccines to vaccinate as many Ghanaians as possible to enable us to attain herd immunity as a country.

The youth make up over 40% of the Ghanaian population making them the drivers of Ghana’s future. Hence, they should be well trained and equipped as such. There is therefore a need for a transformational and revolutionary approach to STEM education in Ghana. I would want to see more government and private sector collaboration in establishing STEM institutions to bridge the gap of STEM education in Ghana. This is what will leapfrog Projects like RECIRCULATE in Ghana and Africa and make them successful!!!

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