Ghana-based real estate developer Kofi Anku is the July 2020 SIA-Africa Person of the Month. Mr. Anku was born in Ohio in the U.S. Midwest and traveled extensively to Ghana before relocating there in 2005. He was drawn to the area by family, business opportunities, friends and the pace of life. Anku is a partner, shareholder and board member of Ayi Mensah Park, a vibrant community of 218 residences with a 2-acre, landscaped park in its center, 20 minutes from Kotoka Airport and nestled at the foot of the Aburi Hills. Many of the homes are also run on solar power, with battery back-up, providing up to 90% of their energy.
A joint venture between International firm BlackIvy’s IndigoHomes and Ghana-based Mercury Estates, the development stands out as Ghana's first neighborhood scale, townhouse development, which optimizes land - an increasingly precious resource in the country - and reduces the per unit cost of shared infrastructure and amenities. Anku believes real estate is the basis of wealth creation and is important for building strong families. “It’s about a project of nation building and real estate being a root to that. If you have the right partners you can do amazing things,” Anku said in a recent interview. He is also committed to affordable housing, hoping that Ghanaian people that live in Ghana will be able to afford a home, and believes they should have access to mortgage loans at reasonable rates.
Anku is also an executive at Africa Building Partners (ABP), a construction company that built the Mother and Baby unit at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi through funds raised by Ghana’s First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo. The hospital was in dire need of the unit and now has triple the birthing beds and incubators, and newly introduced infant ventilators. The team is also building a pediatric intensive care unit at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
He is also executive director of Premium Vegetables Ltd., which runs a huge commercial greenhouse in eastern Ghana in the mountains of Aburi. It supplies supermarkets and restaurants in Accra. Anku has overseen land development in Pokuase, Aburi and Batsonaa for more than a decade as Executive Director of Volta Ghana Investment Company, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Right to Dream Football Academy and on the Board of Directors of the Ghana Wildlife Society.
For his work to promote affordable housing and home ownership, and his work on healthcare infrastructure and agriculture efforts in Ghana, we honor Kofi Anku as the July 2020 SIA-Africa Person of the Month.
