Honourable Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal
Honourable Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal is currently Ghana’s Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture. Dr. Mohammed Awal trained and worked as a journalist and a marketer for several years with Ghana’s premier newspaper and media house the Graphic Communications Group Limited, He joined the Graphic Communications Group as a reporter, page editor, advertising manager, general manager, and finally led the company as its Chief Executive Officer.
In the area of entrepreneurship, Dr. Mohammed Awal once led the affairs of Chase Petroleum Corporation, a downstream oil and gas company that operates in Ghana. He also founded and led Marble Communications Group Limited, a private media and publishing house in Ghana as its Chief Executive Officer. Also, as an entrepreneurial expert, Dr. Mohammed Awal had the occasion to offer his services as a consultant in the areas of business strategy, management, marketing, and communications, offering his services to Diplomatic Missions, Development partners as well as state institutions.
Aside from his current political portfolio as Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr. Mohammed Awal served as the Minister for Business Development between January 2017 and February 2021. He is the first and the only person to have served his country Ghana under that Ministry. He is widely credited for developing an Entrepreneurship Policy for Ghana whilst serving in that capacity. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Mohammed Awal is the founder and owner of a number of companies and is a strong advocate for linking classrooms to real-world experiences, and therefore has consistently maintained the need to “bring the classroom into industry, and industry into the classroom” towards creating economic transformation for Ghana and Africa at large.
Dr. Mohammed Awal is an ineluctable pillar in the Government of Ghana and has represented the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as his Special Envoy, representing him on special assignments which include special Presidential and Diplomatic missions to the United States of America, United Kingdom, India, Turkey, Germany, France, Hungary, China, Morocco, Iran, Italy, Central African Republic, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Qatar and Portugal and Guinea Bissau and on missions to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Dr. Mohammed Awal has copped numerous awards and recognitions. In 2019, he was adjudged ‘the Most Business-Oriented Minister’ of Africa by the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF). He was also named ‘the Best Performing Minister’ and the ‘Most Outstanding Minister in Ghana’ for 2018 and 2019 respectively by the Ghana Entrepreneur and Corporate Executive Awards. In 2009, the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) awarded Dr. Mohammed Awal as ‘Ghana’s Marketing Man of the Year’, and impressively also, declared him ‘the Most Respected Chief Executive Officer’ of the country in the same year. He was also awarded by The Mediterranean Tourism Foundation for Innovative Tourism.
Dr. Mohammed Awal holds a Doctorate Degree in Business Administration with a specialty in succession planning and business competitiveness from the Swiss Business School and three master’s degrees, one in Applied Business Research from the Swiss Business School, Switzerland, an Executive Masters in Business Administration from the University of Ghana Business School, Legon and a Masters in International Journalism from the University of Wales, United Kingdom.
Dr. Mohammed Awal believes in continuous professional and personal education and participates in study and training opportunities including courses in Business Strategy at Harvard Business School, USA, and oil production and management at Oxford, United Kingdom.
As a trailblazer in the entrepreneurial and political landscape in Africa, Dr. Mohammed Awal was the brainchild behind the flagship project in the tourism sector, dubbed ‘Destination Ghana’, which was launched by the President of the Republic of Ghana H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in April 2022 in London, United Kingdom.
Under Dr. Mohammed Awal’s leadership, Ghana seeks to position herself as the most preferred tourist destination in Africa and Ghana as the ‘Centre of the World’. This initiative along with the aforementioned achievements attest palpably to Dr. Mohammed Awal’s unwavering commitment as a business and political leader who has the vision to see the improvement of the entrepreneurial and business ecosystem in Ghana and Africa through trade and investment, tourism, arts, and culture.