Richard Apau is a Co-Founder of Youth Without Borders Ghana currently serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Previously, he served as a Board Member helping in strategic decisions and the Director of Programs and Projects responsible for the planning and implementation of the programmes, projects, and initiatives of the organisation.
Richard is a Cyber Security Expert, Digital Forensics Professional, and Data Analyst with over 10 years’ continues professional experience researching, teaching, consulting, and implementing projects within the Information Technology landscape. Presently, he works as a Systems Analyst for the African Union Commission (AUC) at the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT) based in Algiers Algeria, responsible for the management and maintenance of information and database systems. He had earlier worked as a Cybersecurity Research Consultant and Information Technology (IT) Officer, for the same organization, where he assisted in the implementation of strategic IT solutions. Richard is also a Visiting Cybersecurity Research Fellow at the Human Security Research Centre Ghana and Adjunct Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi Ghana. Mr Apau is an Ambitious Technologist and Entrepreneur with expertise in Digital Innovation Solutions. He is the Founder and Principal Cybersecurity Consultant for Africa Digital Innovations Centre (AfriDIC) Limited and the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of CERIT Research and Consultancy Limited.
Until his current roles, he worked as a Lecturer at the Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial (AAMUSTED) Kumasi Ghana. Richard has also taught at various universities including University of Education Winneba (UEW) Ghana, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), and the Academic City University College as a Lecturer. He began his career as a Systems and Database Administrator at the Institute of Distance Learning (IDL), KNUST Ghana. With his rich experience in international consultancy, Richard has consulted for several organisations, both home and abroad including, AU, NATO, UNDP, UNODC, UN-OHCHR, GIZ, WANEP, Praetorium Solicitors Law Firm, and KAIPTC.
Richard has extensive experiences in the civic engagement spaces including youth development and advocacy, leadership, community resilience initiatives, democratic governance and accountability, and youth economic empowerment. He is a 2018 World Youth Forum Speaker, a 2020 Fellow of the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) and 2016 Alumnus of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), both US Department of State sponsored leadership programs. Richard is a 2019 Chevening Scholar awarded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) and an Alumnus of the African Union Youth Volunteers Corps (AUYVC), an African Union Emerging Leaders Program. He has served as a speaker and panellist for several international conferences and seminars across the globe.
Richard Apau is a doctoral candidate PhD candidate in Computer Science, specializing in Information and Data Security at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, where he also obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc. Hons) and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Computer Science degrees. He also holds a Master of Science (MSc.) Cyber Security and Management degree from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom (UK). He has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals, conferences and written several book chapters. His publications have appeared in Elsevier’s Science Direct, Sage, Taylor and Francis’ Routledge, Emerald, Springer, ACM, IEEE, IGI Global, among other high impact factor journals. His research interests include Cyber Security, Digital Forensics Investigation, Security Architecture and Network Defense, and Crypto-Systems and Data Protection.
Harriet Yayra Adzofu is a Co-Founder of Youth Without Borders Ghana currently serving as the Secretary of the Board of Directors. Previously, she served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations and management of the organization.
Yayra is an international development practitioner with over a decade of professional experience in global health delivery and research, policy advocacy, program management, and youth leadership. Presently, she works as a Research Fellow with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) where she examines barriers to evidence-based policy and planning for harnessing the demographic dividend in West Africa.
Prior to this role, Yayra worked as a Scientific Program Officer with the African Union (AU) at the Scientific, Technical & Research Commission (STRC) based in Abuja, Nigeria. While with the AU-STRC, she helped develop a harmonized guideline for good clinical practice, a publication that later informed the formation of the African Union Network of Ethical Research (AUNER). Previously, she worked for over six years as a Public Health Practitioner with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) across varied levels of healthcare delivery and research particularly mental healthcare, maternal and child health, HIV & adolescent health, and perinatal mental health.
Ms. Adzofu also has extensive experience in youth and civic engagement spaces driving positive change in communities in Ghana and beyond. As a member of the International Leadership Association, she is passionate about improving the lives of women and youth through evidence-based policy and advocacy. As Vice-Curator of Global Shapers Ho Hub, she co-led many projects to provide comfortable shoes and safe drinking water to school children, as well as financial literacy training to market women in the Ho municipality. She also led the Girls Go Green project with Kairos Ladies Network in Ghana to ignite the interest of over 5000 high school girls in agriculture while building their confidence to make responsible sexual and reproductive health decisions. For this she received a special training as a Champion for Change Women’s Leader in Agriculture by USAID’s Feed the Future program and featured in the Africa Lead Newsletter as an Emerging Leader in Agriculture.
Yayra’s professional working experiences and youth civic leadership has received numerous global recognitions and awards. She is a 2019 Commonwealth Shared Scholar awarded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) to study masters’ degree in the UK. In the UK, she won the King’s Civic Challenge enterprise prize of £5000 from the Mayor of London to support a local charity to reduce loneliness and isolation among older Black and minority ethnic communities in Southwark, London. Yayra is also a recipient of the Pan African University Scholarship awarded by the African Union Commission also for a master’s degree. In 2015, she was named African Youth Hero by the African Union Commission and appointed a member of the AU Youth Advisory Board in 2017 where she contributed to adolescent health programming with international organizations including the World Health Organization African Regional Office (WHO/AFRO). In 2014, she was selected as a Mandela Washington Fellow by the US Department of States as part of the YALI program and received a certificate of training in Public Management and Administration from the Florida International University.
Ms. Adzofu holds Master of Science (MSc) in Global Mental Health from the King’s College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK, a Master of Health Sciences degree in Reproductive Health from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She also holds a Bachelor’s (BSc Hons) degree in Nursing from the Central University, a Higher National Diploma in Public Health Nursing from Public Health Nurses’ School Korle-Bu and Diploma in Mental Health Nursing from Pantang Nurses’ Training College all in Accra Ghana.
Akilu Luyusa is a Co-Founder of Youth Without Borders Ghana currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors. Previously, she served as the Director of Human Resources and Administration responsible for overseeing the day-to-day general administration, human resources, welfare, and management issues of the organization.
Luyusa is an award winning Professional Youth Development Practitioner with over ten (10) years professional experience in Youth Development. Currently, she works as the District Director for the National Youth Authority (NYA) at the Asuogyaman District, where she sensitizes communities, makes policies for youth empowerment project and programmes, develop concepts and strategic plan towards averting challenges confronting young people in area of health, employment etc. She is currently serving on the following committees; District management committee, District planning committee unit, social services, District budget committee, and small scale enterprise committee. In 2020 due to her performance and commitment to youth work, she was assigned by the Lower Manya Municipal Office as Acting Municipal Director for NYA after the officer retired and oversaw the activities of the assembly for a period of 3 years. During this period she combines the two districts and ensured that youth work was eminent.
Luyusa is an Author, Public Speaker, and accomplished Entrepreneur in Agribusiness and Social Enterprises. She is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Konon-Kole Farms, the Founder and CEO of NBIEFULBE Development Foundation (NDF), and the CEO of NDF Centre for Professional Education and Research which runs professional tertiary programs with certification/accreditation from Cambridge University UK. She is also a Board Member of CELDAR (centre for Livelihood Development and Resilience), a development and non-profit organization with the objective of supporting vulnerable citizens and marginalized communities to achieve sustainable livelihood. As an author, she has successfully published three books on leadership roles, career guide and the impact of technical and vocational skills on the youth; she is also assist in lecturing the communication and management department of NDF. In her line of duty she has guided and facilitated young people find their calling in life.
Her work earned her international youth development conferences and awards (South Africa- UNDP, Mauritania IFAD). Africa Youth and Governance (AYGC, South Africa) delegate, recipient of the youth enterprise grant towards development of youth in Aqua culture in 2015, Youth and Mentors Awards 2018 (outstanding youth development worker), outstanding head of department awards 2019 etc.
Akilu Luyusa holds a Diploma in Youth Development Services from the University of Ghana (UG), Legon Ghana and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Communications from the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC) Accra, Ghana (formerly Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ). She also holds Graduate Diploma from the Cambridge International College. Ms. Luyusa is currently into youth development, public speaking, writing and consulting. She is solution oriented, a go getter and able to confront challenging assignments to achieve desired result.
Musa Frimpong is a Co-Founder of Youth Without Borders Ghana and currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors. He was the first Executive Director of the organization who led the strategic vision, projects and programmes of the organisation and positioned it a leading youth development organisation in Ghana, Africa and globally impacting thousands of young people.
Musa has over 15years experience in many human and organisational development disciplines including project and nonprofit management, human capital and youth development, leadership and community development and entrepreneurship and innovation. He has founded, led and coordinated several development organizations and projects across the world especially in Africa with travels to over 12 countries across all the 5 regions of Africa, as well as Turkey, China and the USA. Musa is currently the Manager in charge of Corporate Governance at the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Ghana. Prior to joining SIGA, Musa was the founding CEO of Duapa Africa and a former Program Officer for the African Union Youth Volunteer Corps (AU-YVC) programme at the African Union Commission (AUC) headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Musa was also involved in driving various continental development policies and programmes with the African Union and its partners.
He is an Alumnus of the African Union Youth Volunteer Corps (AU-YVC) by the African Union; International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) Alumnus by the US State Department with professional visits across five US States and an awardee of MOFCOM Scholarship (highest scholarship by the Chinese Government). He was nominated ‘Africa Man of the Year’ in the Pride of Africa Asia Pacific Awards held in Beijing, China in 2019.
Musa holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Administration (focus on International Development and Governance) from Tsinghua University (China and Asia’s leading University), Beijing, China where he got Presidential recognition for excellence in innovation, entrepreneurship and social impact during the commencement ceremony of over 8,000 international and local graduate students from over 50 countries. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Mathematics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana; a Post Graduate Certificate in Youth Development Practice from C4YDS, Lusaka, Zambia; and a Certificate in Graphic and Web Design from the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Istanbul, Turkey.
Musa believes in a world where people are empowered to live happy lives, and his commitment is to create this world by working with like-minded people, companies and organisations. His cumulative 15 years of professional experience across the world with diverse cultures, teams and backgrounds has prepared him to lead any business, organization, project or programme to a greater success. Musa is a known public speaker at national, continental and global media and high-level platforms on various socioeconomic development issues. He is a published author and has won several awards and recognitions globally.
Albert Banunle is a Co-Founder of Youth Without Borders Ghana and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors. Albert previously served as the director responsible for research policy and advocacy spearheading the strategies for public advocacy, evaluation of programmes, and other documents to shape the organisation.
Albert is a Research Scientist with over a decade professional experience in research, teaching, and consultancy. Currently, he is a Lecturer at the Department of Environmental Science of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), responsible for teaching, research and community services. Albert is also a Co-Founder and CEO of CERIT Research and Consultancy Limited, Ghana.
Prior to his current role, he worked as Graduate Assistant at the KNUST. In the last 10 years, Albert has worked on research and development-oriented project for international and local organisations including the Commonwealth Commission, USAID, ACDI/VOCA, Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), World Food Programme (WFP), the African Union (AU), West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) among others. Albert is also a member of the Circular Economy Alliance (CEA) and is currently on an advanced course toward full certification as a Circular Economy Expert. He worked with the Commonwealth Scholarship Secretariat as Knowledge Hub Coordinator responsible for strengthening resilience and response to crises.
Albert is passionately enthused about helping young people to unleash their potential for national development. He has engaged in youth-centric research including determinants of pro-environmental behaviour of urban youth in Ghana; young people as drivers of circular economy in the Kumasi Metropolis among many others. Albert’s focus in YWB Ghana is on helping the organisation position itself to advance the course of youth in Ghana and the world at large toward action in environmental management and conservation, climate change (SDG13) and sustainable development.
Albert has received several awards and fellowships. He studied his PhD under the Building Stronger Universities (BSU III) project by DANIDA at KNUST with secondment fellowship at the Aarhus University in Denmark. He is a 2020 Commonwealth Shared Scholar awarded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) to study masters’ degree in the UK. While in the UK, he was awarded the Scottish Innovative Student Award (SISA III- Innovative Champion) during his time of study at the University of Aberdeen.
Albert Banunle has completed his PhD studies in Environmental Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Kumasi Ghana. He holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Environmental Partnership Management with distinction from the University of Aberdeen (UK), another Masters (M.Sc.) degree in Environmental Science and a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc. Hons) in Agriculture with a specialisation in Agricultural Economics and Farm Management from the KNUST. He has Certificate in Quantitative Risk Modelling from KNUST, Certificate in STATA Econometric Analysis from the University of Aberdeen and a Certificate in NGO Projects and Operation Management from Cambridge Centre of Excellence. He has extensive research and publication experience, and his publications have appeared in Springer, Elsevier, among other high impact factor journals. His research interests include waste management and valorisation, circular bioeconomy, environmental governance and the nexus between the environment and human security.
