Meet the Top 10 Young and Most

Promising Ghanaian Entrepreneurs of

the Year
By Peace Ezebuiro

Ghanaian entrepreneurs in recent times have been coming up the ladder

of business both at the national and international levels. There are those
of them  who have achieved significant successes in their businesses
that we could not help but mention them here for recognition and
commendation. The stunning thing about their achievements is that these
lots made it while still very young. From the look of things, there are high
hopes that they will do far better than most of the already known and
famous Ghanaian businessmen who have come before them. Its very
much commendable that not only men made this list; there are women
too.
Here Are the Latest Young and Promising
Ghanaian Entrepreneurs:

1. Sangu Delle

Sangu Delle is a young and vibrant Ghanaian entrepreneur. He is the

brilliant mind and brains behind Golden Palm Investments located in
Accra, Ghana. A holding company that invests in early stage venture and
growth capital financing across Africa, particularly in real Estate,
healthcare, agribusiness and technology. The GPI has backed startups
such as SOLO Mobile in Nigeria, mPharma in Ghana, and Stawi Foods in
Kenya. In healthcare, he and his team have built a successful chain of
hospitals in Ghana, which they hope to expand into the region.

He graduated from the Havard Business School and is currently running

an MBA in the Havard Law School. He is a fast rising entrepreneur with
great and enviable business initiatives and passion towards bringing
about significant changes in the life of Africans. Sangu has begun to gain
international recognition and was named in the Forbes’ 30 Most
Promising Young Entrepreneurs 2014 list.
2. Kosi Yankey

Kosi Yankey is a Ghanaian entrepreneur who is currently working with

Engineers Without Borders (EWB)’s Business Development Sector to
develop a training program for agribusinesses in Africa through Mobile
Business Clinics. She is the Founder and CEO of Nuba Foods and
Commodities, an organisation helping to bridge the gap between local
farmers and industries in the West African sub-region by sourcing
agricultural raw materials from smallholder farmers and supplying them
to the industries.

Born in Ghana, Kosi Yankey developed an interest in micro-finance in the

banking institutions of the West, living in both London and New York. It is
her ultimate goal that over the next half decade, Nuba should be the brand
of choice for West African families no matter where they live. She is one
of the young promising entrepreneurs that Ghana is looking up to to bring
about tremendous change in some areas of the country’s business world.

3. David Osei

David Osei is a young and award-winning Ghanaian entrepreneur. David is

the Co-founder, (in partnership with Kamil Nabong and Philips Effah) and
CEO of Dropifi Limited, Africa’s first technology startup to be accepted
into Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups Accelerator Program. He was named
one of 2014’s 40 under 40 by the New York based The Network Journal
and was one of the businessmen invited to the 1st US – Africa Business
Forum by Bloomberg in Washington. David has been a guest speaker at
Harvard University, Stanford University, where he speaks on Venture
Financing Africa and Accelerating African Startups. Dropifi also came 3rd
in 2012 Forbes Africa Magazine’s Top 20 Technology Start Up Companies
in Africa.

4. Alex Adjei Bram

Alex Adjei Bram is the Co-founder and General Manager of the SMSGH,
a leading mobile and internet value added service (VAS) providers in
Africa owned by young Ghanaian entrepreneurs. He is a Ghanaian
upcoming entrepreneur who has gained global recognition in recent
times. Alex read chemistry at KNUST. The firm is growing by leaps and
bounds. It has run on the back of its three major platforms/apps;
MYtxtBOX, Jumpfon, and MPower Payments which have grown its
customer base to over 25 million across four African countries including
Nigeria and Cameroon in West Africa and Kenya in East Africa. It has a
registered representative office in the United States of America for the
authentication of electronic payments. In 2013, he was featured in a
United Nations General Assembly conference on promoting
entrepreneurship as a means to tackle the world’s most pressing
problems.
5. Fred Deegbe

Frederick Deegbe, popularly known as the shoemaker that heels the world
is a Ghanaian entrepreneur, who was formerly a banker but left the job
and went into shoe design. He is the Co-founder and Chief Shoemaker of
“Heel the World” shoe production and design company in Accra, Ghana.
He gave the company that name because of his vision to impact not only
Africa but the entire world. He was motivated by Ghana’s over-
dependence on foreign goods, and specifically, the local mindset that
quality designer shoes cannot be produced in his home country. Fred
graduated from the Asheshi University where he served as the second
president of the Ashesi Student Council, and played a lead role in helping
define a culture for Ashesi’s student community.

Today, with his experience at Ashesi and a year after starting a shoe
company, Fred is working to teach more young Africans about
entrepreneurship and leadership; and Heel The World’s presence is being
felt all over the world. The company is providing jobs for local
shoemakers, has supported other young entrepreneurs financially and is
planning to set up a resource repository for would-be entrepreneurs to tap
into. Heel The World also runs a small foundation that continues to work
with non-profit organisations to support deprived communities in Ghana.
6. Bright Simons

Bright Simons is a technology innovator, development activist and social

entrepreneur. He is President of the mPedigree Network, a self-described
‘social enterprise’ noted for its work to expose makers and distributors of
counterfeit medicines, and for creating a software program called
Goldkeys that enables the verification of certain products in some
countries.
mPedigree is simply a system that empowers consumers to instantly
verify with a free text message whether their medicines are safe and not
counterfeit. Before that, he was Director of Research at the IMANI Centre
for Policy and Education in Ghana, where he helped steer the
organization’s award winning research activities. Bright is a Member of
the World Economic Forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils and
Technology Pioneers communities.

7. Derrydean Adzie
Derrydean Adzie is a Ghanaian businessman, CEO and co-founder of
DreamOval with three of his school mates in April 2007 after completing
Ashesi University in December 2006. DreamOval is an establishment
that develops internet and mobile software solutions and provides a
payment platform for banks and telecom providers. He holds a Bachelor
of Science Degree in Computer science and is directly responsible for
charting and seeing to the implementation of DreamOval’s corporate
strategy.

In an article published for Guardian of UK, he was described as not the

poster child you would expect to see for Africa but a part of Africa’s
emerging class of young entrepreneurs who are presenting a serious
challenge to Western ideas of African economic development. He  was
awarded the 2011 Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Youth Excellence
Awards.

8. Israella Kafui Mansu

Israella Kafui Mansu is a reputed female entrepreneur in Ghana, the
founder and CEO of Mansuki Ghana Ltd. As an unemployed graduate, she
found solutions to the developmental challenges she identified in her
community. Israella researches, designs, develop, produce and
commercialize quality handcrafted and natural hair and body care
products for local and international sales.

She creates employment and trains less privileged rural women and
unskilled youths, teaching them technical skills for making soaps, body
cream, hair pomade, as well as packaging, marketing and other basic
entrepreneurial skills. She has received 2 Ghanaian and 2 international
business awards in South Africa and Sweden. She was celebrated as an
‘Apostle of the new economy’ by Springboard, Legacy and Legacy, Ghana.
Her business is growing and has potentials of becoming something to
reckon with both in Ghana and in the global market.

9. Tonyi Senayah

Tonyi Senaya, a young entrepreneur in Kumasi, is the CEO of Horseman

Shoes, a manufacturing company that makes quality and fashionable
leather foot wears in Ghana. He founded Horseman Shoes in 2010 and
the company quickly took off. His goal is to lead Horseman Shoes in
becoming Africa’s largest footwear manufacturer. His company produces
a popular variety of footwear all made in Africa. Senayah has a bachelor’s
degree from the University of Ghana, where he was also a student leader.
In 2009, he noticed a demand for high-quality shoes and knew of a lot of
young and skillful shoe makers who were looking for work. He put the two
elements together and started his shoe making business from the ground
up, first buying from local manufacturers, then establishing his own
workshop.

Senayah says that the key to success is overcoming the fear of failure.
“You have to be something extraordinary to be successful here in Africa,”
he says. The next step for Horseman Shoes is the international market
and the logistics are currently being prepared.  In 2011, Senayah was
named young entrepreneur of the year at the Global Professional
Achievers Award in Accra. Senayah and his shoe manufacturer were also
given the Outstanding Product Quality award from African Leadership
Awards, 2013.

10. Bernard Kelvin Clive

Bernard Kelvin Clive is a lifestyle Entrepreneur, Personal Branding Coach,

Brand Strategist at BKC Consulting with over 10 years of experience in
digital publishing. He has offered consulting services to hundreds of
writers, poets, authors locally and internationally to self-publish their
books. He hosts the number #1 ranked Business & Career podcast in
Ghana and Botswana on iTunes.

He has a passion for inspiring and empowering people to live their

dreams and enjoy life, no matter what their age or background may be.