Nana Adjoa Sifa Amponsah, a young woman from Ghana, dreams of “a society where young women graduates are proud to be ‘agripreneurs’, agricultural entrepreneurs, and where the smallholder farmer gets value for money”.

She is confident that women agripreneurs will influence and drive Ghana's economy, “grow healthy food and wealthy farmers”.

“I strongly believe that agriculture is one single sector that can help reduce five of the world's most pressing problems which are unemployment, food insecurity, poverty, hunger and malnutrition.”

A certified social entrepreneur from the India-based Institute of Social Entrepreneurs (now called Kanthari), Nana has direct field experience in food security, strategic management and agriculture in Africa, Asia and Europe. Over the years, Nana has become a project management expert and has initiated numerous projects and programs that help create lasting change. Nana is also skilled in fundraising and events and projects planning.

Currently, Nana is the President of Direct Impact Foundation in Ghana, an organization aiming to bridge the gap between rural and urban education. She is also an initiator of Guzakuza, a social enterprise committed to combining agriculture and entrepreneurship to create agrpreneurial mindsets. Guzakuza is a Swahili word meaning ‘grow to touch lives’. She sees it as an approach to tackle the most pressing problems, calling it ‘solution ACT’ which stands for Advocacy, Cooperatives, and Training.

“The big question I keep asking is what would be the greatest change? How do we feed the population on track to 9 billion in 2050 if we are all lawyers, doctors and engineers?”

Nana has been a member of AWID since early 2014. She loves to travel, write and cook and is passionate about photography and farming.

Listen to her “Dream Speech” where you can also find out more about ‘solution ACT’.