Emelia Akumah, a Ghanaian Entrepreneur and passionate writer, has made history by becoming the first West African and only Ghanaian to speak on the INSPIRE.D platform at the just-ended World Youth Forum in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh.

Miss Akumah spoke about her journey as an entrepreneur and how a dark phase of her life inspired her to rediscover her purpose. The room fell silent as she mounted the stage with all eyes glued to her. One could hear a pin drop as she delivered her life story to the enthralled crowd with stories on her upbringing in Ghana, her struggles as a female entrepreneur, her failures and achievements.

Miss Akumah, grew up in a single-parent household with her nurse mother and two sisters. Being the middle child meant she had to constantly play the big sister role to her younger sister during the long periods when her mother had to work double shifts. This instilled in her a sense of responsibility at a young age.

Little wonder that the alumnus of the London School of Business and Finance, in 2018, cofounded 1Sports.

The vision for 1Sports was to improve the lives of young people in Ghana through education, training, scholarships and sport. The major highlight of which was a partnership with the Ministry of Education to launch the Exceed Project, which continues to improve the lives of over a thousand girls in the central region of the country through education and sports.

Currently, she divides her time between consulting for VAOB Group – both Ghana and UK, and utilising her over ten-year corporate experience in the MENA region and Africa in facilitating b2b partnerships. She uses her knack for strategy to make meaningful partnerships and help organisations unleash and explore opportunities for growth.

No stranger to abuse plus being an outspoken advocate for women’s issues, she founded The Enough Network (TEN) in 2020 as a community platform for women to share their stories and stir up conversations that accelerate change.

She strives for TEN to be able to provide a safe haven for women healing from trauma and abuse and also provide skills training and mentorship for women and young girls in Ghana.

She is also a self-styled energy enthusiast and recently led the Ghanaian delegation (comprising the deputy Energy minister, and major stakeholders in the energy industry of Ghana) to the Africa Energy Week held in Cape Town, South Africa, in November of 2021.

Miss Akumah aims to create awareness on the contribution to climate change by activities in the energy sector and push for the adoption of renewable energy in Africa. When she does not have her hands full with her many causes, she likes to share snippets from her journal (“Nuggets from my journal”) and loves to read a good book. She enjoys travelling around the world and exploring untapped opportunities.

All these reasons and more sum up the personality who is Emelia Akumah – a young woman passionate about creating an enabling environment for other young people like her to thrive and be heard. Hence, awarded the honour of being the first West African and only Ghanaian speaker on the INSPIRE.D platform at the World Youth Forum.

The World Youth Forum is a platform for promising youth held annually in Egypt. It hopes to spread the message of peace, prosperity, harmony, and progress to the entire world. The forum is a chance for one to engage with top policy-makers in the region and network with promising youth from the region and the world that are determined to create change in the world we live in today.

INSPIRE.D is a platform and stage that grants opportunities to young people with stories worth telling. It highlights inventions, survivals, humane stories, diversified perspectives and a range of other topics.