Richard Apau is a Co-Founder of Youth Without Borders Ghana and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Previously, he served as a Member of the Board of Directors and helped to shape the strategic direction of the organisation. He had earlier served as 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, Digital Forensic and Cyber Threat Intelligence Expert with over a decade experience consulting, researching, teaching and implementing projects within the Information Technology landscape. He is also Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy Expert with vast experience in AI Governance and Digital Transformation. Richard currently works as a Systems Analyst at the African Union Counter Terrorism Centre (AUCTC), where he provides strategic capacity building on Cybersecurity, Data Protection, and AI Policy Development across Africa. At the AUCTC, he manages and analyses cybersecurity incidents through Security Information and Event Managements (SIEMs), Endpoint Detection and Responses and Network Detection and Responses (EDRs/NDRs). Richard also Coordinates the AUCTC’s Continental Cybersecurity Capability Programme (A3CP) aimed at ensuring Africa’s cyberspace resilience to counter terrorists’ exploitation of ICTs and Emerging Technologies.
Prior to his current role, he served as a Lecturer at the Akenten Appiah Menkah University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED) Kumasi, Ghana. He concurrently lectured various Computer Science courses at different universities across Ghana including Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology (KNUST), Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), University of Education, Winneba (UEW), and Academic City University. Prior to that, he was IT Officer at the African Union (AU), where he assisted in the implementation of strategic IT solutions. Earlier, he worked as a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant at the Department of Computer Science, KNUST. He began his career as Systems and Database Administrator at the Institute of Distance Learning (IDL), KNUST. With his rich experience, he has provided cybersecurity expertise for several organisations across the globe including NATO, INTERPOL, GIZ, EU, WANEP, KAIPTC, Praetorium Solicitors Law Firm, Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF), UNDP, UNOCT, UNICRI, and UNODC among others. He currently serves as a Visiting Lecturer of Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for several Universities in Africa as well as Cybersecurity Research Fellow at the Human Security Research Centre 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. 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. Given his passion for community engagement and empowerment, he is currently the Founder and Executive Chairman for Richard Apau Foundation, a community based non-profit organisation aimed at improving lives and livelihood in rural communities in Ghana.
Richard’s professional working experiences and youth leadership activities have received numerous global recognitions and awards. He is a 2023 Commonwealth Scholar and 2019 Chevening Scholar both awarded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) to study master’s degrees in the UK. In 2020, he was selected as a Fellow of the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) and also selected in 2016 as a Fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Regional Leadership Centre (RLC) West Africa, both awarded by the US Department of State. He is a 2018 World Youth Forum Speaker and was in 2017 selected for 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 PhD candidate in Computer Science, specializing in Information Security and Data Protection at KNUST Ghana. He holds Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Information Security and Data Privacy from KNUST Ghana. He also holds a Master of Science (MSc.) Cyber Security and Management degree with distinction from the University of Warwick (UK) and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Global Security from the King’s College London (UK), in addition to a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) degree in Computer Science from KNUST Ghana. Richard received an Executive Certificate in International Law of Cyber Operations from University of Reading (UK), and an Executive Certificate in Weapons and Ammunition Management (WAM) from Bunderswehr Verification Centre (BwVC), Germany. He is Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst, Certified Enterprise Cybersecurity Professional, and Certified Network Defender.
Harriet Yayra Adzofu is a Co-Founder of Youth Without Borders Ghana and currently serves as Secretary to the Board of Directors. She previously held the role of Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the organization’s daily operations and strategic management.
Yayra is a trained nurse and reproductive mental health specialist with over a decade of professional experience in global health delivery and research, policy advocacy, program management, and youth leadership. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Nursing Science at Duke University, USA, focusing on developing culturally relevant trauma-informed models of care for perinatal women affected by gender-based violence.
Before her doctoral studies, Yayra served as Program Coordinator for the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Program at the University Medical Centre Utrecht, Nertherlands, supporting global health research collaborations and institutional capacity building across Africa, Asia, South America, and Australia. Prior to that, she was a Research Fellow with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), where she explored barriers to evidence-based policymaking to harness the demographic dividend in West Africa. Earlier in her career, Yayra worked as a Scientific Program Officer with the African Union’s Scientific, Technical and Research Commission (AU-STRC) in Abuja, Nigeria. There, she contributed to the development of a harmonized guideline for good clinical practice, which informed the formation of the African Union Network of Ethical Research (AUNER). She also served with the Ghana Health Service for over six years, delivering public health programs across maternal and child health, adolescent health, HIV care, mental health, and perinatal mental health research.
Yayra also has a strong background in youth and civic engagement. As a student nurse, she participated in medical outreach programs with Acts Africa, providing free healthcare in underserved Ghanaian communities. She was the founding Vice-Curator of the Global Shapers Ho Hub, where she led projects to provide school children with clean water and deliver financial literacy training to women in local markets. She also spearheaded the Girls Go Green initiative with Kairos Ladies Network, reaching over 5,000 high school girls with programs focused on agriculture and reproductive health education. For this work, she received specialized leadership training from USAID’s Feed the Future initiative and was featured in the Africa Lead Newsletter as an Emerging Leader in Agriculture.
Her contributions have earned her numerous international awards and recognitions. She was awarded the 2019 Commonwealth Shared Scholarship by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to pursue a master’s degree in the UK. While in the UK, she won the King’s Civic Challenge Prize, funded by the Mayor of London to support a project reducing isolation among older Black and minority ethnic communities in Southwark. She was also selected as a student ambassador for LSHTM (2019–2021). Yayra is also a recipient of the Pan African University Scholarship from the African Union Commission, which supported her master’s studies in Nigeria. She was named African Youth Hero by the African Union Commission in 2015 and appointed to the AU Youth Advisory Board in 2017, working on adolescent health programming in collaboration with WHO/AFRO.
She has also been awarded several prestigious fellowships including the Kofi Anan Global Health Leadership Fellowship by the Africa CDC, the Emerging African Leadership Fellowship by the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town, and the Mandela Washington Fellow by the U.S. Department of State where she earned a certificate in public management and administration from Florida International University.
Yayra holds a joint Master of Science (MSc.) in Global Mental Health from King’s College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK, and Master of Science (MSc.) in Reproductive Health from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She also holds Bachelor’s (BSc Hons) in Nursing from Central University, a Higher National Diploma in Public Health Nursing from the Public Health Nurses’ School, Korle-Bu, and a 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.
Ms. 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 in the Eastern Region of Ghana, 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 work, she was assigned to the Lower Manya Municipal Office as Acting Municipal Director for NYA and during this period, she combined the two districts and ensured that youth work was eminent.
Ms. Luyusa is an Author, Public Speaker, and a founding member and a head of communications and strategies at the institute of youth development practitioners- Ghana an institute that seeks to strengthen the capacity of youth development practitioners and workers, promote evidence-based practice, and advocate for policies that support the wellbeing and empowerment of young people in Ghana. 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 four books on youth leadership roles, career guide, the impact of technical and vocational skills on the youth, learning techniques, youth in leadership and entrepreneurship roles. In her line of duty, she has given guidance and facilitated young people to find their calling in life.
Her work earned her international youth development conferences and awards (South Africa- UNDP, Mauritania IFAD), humanitarian service workshop in Morrocco, 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, humanitarian service award in 2024 among many others.
Akilu Luyusa holds a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Development Communications from the African University College of Communications (AUCC), Accra 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 Diploma in Youth Development work from the University of Ghana (UG), Legon Ghana and a Graduate Diploma from the Cambridge International College. Ms. Luyusa is currently into youth development practice, public speaking, writing and coaching. 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.
Dr. Albert Banunle is a multidisciplinary environmentalist, climate-smart agriculture expert with extensive research and consultancy experience in the areas of circular economy, bioresource valorisation, sustainable waste management practices, environmental/natural resources governance, human security, and pro-environmental behaviour. Albert earned a PhD in Environmental Science from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology under the Building Stronger Universities (BSU III) project by DANIDA with a secondment fellowship at Aarhus University in Denmark. He holds MSc in Environmental Partnership Management from the University of Aberdeen, UK. He also holds MSc Environmental Science and BSc (Hons) Agriculture both from the KNUST Ghana. He has a professional training certificate in NGO Projects and Operation Management from the Cambridge Centre of Excellence (Ghana).
Dr Banunle is currently a Lecturer at the Department of Environmental Science, KNUST, where he teaches and mentors both undergraduate and postgraduate students. He has led the development of innovative programmes and research works with several publications in refereed journals to his name. Dr Banunle currently serves as the Patron of the Environmental Science Students’ Association (ENSSA), fostering academic and leadership growth among young environmentalists. He is a Co-Founder and the CEO of CeRIT Research and Consultancy LLC, a company that provides training, consulting and research services organisations/individuals in Ghana and abroad. Albert has been an academic and professional mentor to several young people in diverse fields, guiding them to reach their full potential.
In the last 10 years, Dr Banunle has worked on research and development-oriented projects 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. Through these assignments, he has contributed to the generation of knowledge and policy in several areas, including peace and security, governance, climate change, environmental and natural resources governance, agriculture and food security. In 2020, he also served as a Researcher for the Commonwealth Commission Researchers Bootcamp Project on preparedness of member countries for pandemics and natural disasters.
Dr Banunle is a recipient of the prestigious Commonwealth Shared Scholarship by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) for a master’s degree in the UK in 2020. While in the UK, he was awarded the Scottish Innovative Student Award (SISA III- Innovative Champion) by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise. During this period, he also worked with the Commonwealth Scholarship Secretariat as Knowledge Hub Coordinator (KHC), responsible for strengthening resilience and response to crises from November 2020 to October 2021. In 2024, Albert received the CSC Alumni Community Engagement Fund (ACEF) to promote behavioural solutions to environmental challenges in Ghana among the youth, out of which the Youth in Sustainable Development Club was launched.
Albert is an active member of the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES)-UK, and the Ghana Science Association (GSA). As a founding member and former Director of Research, Policy and Advocacy at Youth Without Borders Ghana, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the organisation’s strategic direction. He has been instrumental in drafting concept notes and developing guidelines for the Environment and Climate Action Working Group. In his current role as a member of the Board of Directors, Albert is committed to helping the organisation advance its mission through youth-led initiatives focused on environmental protection, climate action, waste management, and the circular economy.
