Despite the gloomy picture that is often created about the plight of the African women, when it comes to powerful black women, Africa has its fair share. From Queen Amina, Nana Yaa Asantewaa, Isabel dos Santos, Graça Machel to Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, there are many instances in history when women have led. What is particularly inspiring is the abundance of a younger generation of powerhouse women who are making a remarkable difference in society by amplifying the women’s voice and helping to shape the lives of our women and youth.
This foretells a future of a thriving world where vices such as misogyny and patriarchy may have very little or no grasp. One of such powerhouse women of our time is Ama Duncan.
“I am passionate about seeing an Africa in which women in business are empowered to create wealth and impact people”
Ama Duncan is a Ghanaian born author and business coach. She completed her degree in Bachelor of Arts – Economics and Psychology at the University of Ghana in 2005 and furthered her studies at the Paris Graduate School of Management. As a way to challenge herself by harnessing her 14 years of experience in Human Resources Development, she ventured into entrepreneurship. Ama has put her experience to use by setting up numerous ventures. She has also worked as a facilitator with institutions such as – the British Council, The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), The No Business As Usual Hub Youth Entrepreneurship and Employability Program and The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC). The first business she founded was Corporate Training Solutions, an avenue she has used to train over 1000 professionals.
Working with women and the youth is something that is at the heart of her work and this necessitated the founding of The Fabulous Woman Network, a platform she uses to economically empower women in community events, as well as virtually for people who are out of catchment areas but still want to benefit from her work.
The Fabulous Woman Network has Facebook and Instagram pages where she shares daily posts and hosts seminars and workshops on personal development, coaching tips, marketing strategies, business start-up programmes amongst others. Ama has also produced and shared various resources from building business model, pitching products and services to pricing products and services.
Through the Fabulous Woman Network, the Fab Hub Ashanti was birthed. “The Fab Hub |Ashanti is a co-working office and event space for women-led startup programmes, that has organised entrepreneurial development events for over 1000 women, and shared life-changing stories of 200 fabulous women while reaching over 10,000,000 people on social media”-Ama Duncan
Her ubiquitous influence has been felt in youth and women mentorship programmes, radio and television shows, as well renowned national and international conferences such as- the Science Forum South Africa, The National Treasure Conference in Dubai, International Workshop on Leadership and Security, Ghana-EU Circular Economy Conference and a feature on TEDx Talks.
Ama Duncan is the author of Yarns of Inspiration 1 a compilation of easy-to-read inspirational stories about work, faith and dealing with fear, love and entering entrepreneurship among other topics. An Amazon review read “This is a book that literally takes you through various facets of life. You would be in church at one point, be in a personal development training, move on to a self-reflection mood, then get bits and pieces of relationship advice. It is just Fabulous!”
She recently published Yarns of inspiration II, a thirty-three short stories book about her experiences in dealing with low self-esteem, fear and self-doubt as she navigates her successful journey as an entrepreneur. You can read it for Free. Ama also wrote Networking Made Easy, a guide for startups and students. As an Access Bank W Ambassador and a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow, without a doubt, a powerhouse woman.
Women have had enough and we are creating our own tools and using them to educate, provide resources, make evident success stories and encourage self-determination. It is about time that we raised more powerhouse women. After all, as the Fante saying goes, “Ehɛn nna yɛdze hɛn gya nna yenyim mbra osima ɔhyehye hɛn fa! Translated loosely as “We own our fire and know how much it burns”.
