The University of Ghana has successfully hosted UG Advance 2025 at the West African Centre for Genetic Medicine.
The event is an annual convening of the University of Ghana and its alumni in industry. The 2025 conference, themed “Executing Excellence: Navigating Strategy and Operational Mastery”, was organised by the Institutional Advancement Directorate in collaboration with the Office of the Vice-Chancellor. It was designed to empower, connect, and inspire.
This year’s edition brought together alumni from various industries to network and engage in discussions on corporate leadership, strategic execution, and navigating workplace challenges.
Addressing the gathering, Vice-Chancellor Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo highlighted the importance of leadership among alumni. She noted that leadership extends beyond titles and positions, emphasising the influence individuals can have within their spheres.
“If you are an alumnus of the University of Ghana, it means you’re a leader and you’re expected to show leadership wherever you find yourself. Sometimes it is assumed that leadership is about being assigned a position like the Vice-Chancellor, which is not necessarily the issue. Rather, it is about providing guided inspiration towards the achievement of a certain goal, and wherever you find yourself, you have your own sphere of leadership. I therefore encourage alumni of the University of Ghana to demonstrate leadership,” she said.
Speaking to Univers News, alumni in attendance shared their key takeaways:
“So I think my key takeaway for today was on governance. I mean, everything was so insightful, but I actually took a lot from the governance part where he said that we should always go back to our traditions, our traditional values. I think it’s great because it made me realise that yes—we are actually missing part of how to handle our teams. We should create open doors, yes, we should always be welcoming and then let them be able to express themselves in the workplace.”
“When he was talking about the traditional values, and I think the example he cited—when you promise paying your salary on the 24th and then end up paying it around the 10th of the following month—when he said it, I realised that he’s very practical. We put things on paper but we don’t go according to it. Managers and heads of organizations need to be faithful to their employees to foster a good relationship which will yield productivity.”
“The program was very interesting, very exciting, and very informative. We got the information that we need to work out any silos in our workplace. We need to make sure that we navigate and then make work more flexible, which is very important. Though we face challenges at workplaces, we need to strategize to make things work—and work better in the 21st century.”
“It was a great session. The speakers were seasoned speakers. I loved the roundtable discussion where Professor Justice Bawole and Madam Esther Gadagbui gave significant insights. Initially, I didn’t see how interdependent my unit and department at my insurance company was until Professor Bawole mentioned—Strategic Business Units should work in harmony towards the common goal of the organization. Also, the keynote speaker, Kimathi Kuenyehia, gave four points to help in corporate governance which were tremendous—value, integrity, thoughtfulness, and recruitment process.”
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Story by: Sandra Abena Bansah | univers.ug.edu.g
Edited by: Cindy Selasi Humade |
