Ekwow Spio-Garbrah

As Ambassador to the United States from 1994 to 1997, Spio-Garbrah was noted for his success in rebuilding Ghana’s image across the USA, including organising an unprecedented eight-city investment promotion programme for Ghana’s then-President H.E. Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings in the USA. As a result, partly of the successful bilateral programmes he executed,[4][5][6] Ghana became the first country to be visited by U.S. President Bill Clinton during his famous five-country Africa visit in 1998 and is now a recipient of the Millennium Challenge Account. President Clinton’s visit to Ghana was also followed by visits from President George Bush and Barack Obama, making it the only sub-Saharan African country to receive all three Presidents.

As a Minister of Communication of Ghana, from 1997 to 1998,[7] Mr Spio-Garbrah initiated, developed and implemented policies and programmes that supported the increasing convergence of telecommunications, broadcasting, the internet, publishing, news media and postal services, all of which were under his supervision. Concurrently, as chairman of the National Communication Authority (NCA), he had responsibility for regulating all aspects of the telecom, Internet and broadcasting sectors. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah was also in charge of the Public Education Committee which successfully re-introduced the VAT to Ghana after a disastrous first attempt in the early 1990s had left several protesters dead. The VAT has since mobilized USD billions for Ghana's socio-economic and infrastructure development in Ghana.

While Education Minister from 1998 to 2001, Spio-Garbrah was credited with the creation of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund),[8] which has since mobilized over USD Billions for educational sector infrastructure, transportation, equipment and scholarships. The GETFund law has been widely praised as one of the most transformative pieces of legislation in Africa relating to the education sector.[9][10]

From 2014 to January 2017 Ekwow Spio-Grabrah served as Minister for Trade and Industry for the Republic of Ghana.[11] In this position, he led in all aspects of national policy making and initiation of legislation for various aspects of domestic and international trade as well as promoting industry and private sector/business dialogue, and collaboration for Ghana’s competitiveness. He supervised agencies such as the Ghana Free Zones Board, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, the National Standards Authority, the National Board for Small Scale Industries and the Rural Enterprises Programme.

In 2011, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Christian Action Faith Ministries International. This is a global charismatic movement with millions of members across the world. This appointment made Spio-Garbrah the first person to occupy the position of CEO of a Christian denomination in Ghana. The Church's founder, Nicholas Duncan-Williams is married to the famed US trade expert Rosa Whitaker of the Whitaker Group, once US Under Secretary to Africa.

Between 2012-2014, Spio-Garbrah was appointed the President of the Dominion University College, Accra, Ghana which is a private Christian University founded by Nicholas Duncan-Williams. He was responsible for all aspects of strategic planning for the academic programmes, financial and accounting policies, and human resources and administrative systems for the operations of the private Christian University.[12]