Estelle Akofio-Sowah is presently the CEO of Busy Internet in Ghana and we at BarCamp are excited to have her as a keynote speaker for the first BarCamp Ghana event in December, 2008.

Estelle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to a Ghanaian father and Scottish mother and was six months old when she was brought to Ghana. Her parents met in Edinburgh, where her dad was studying. She attended the Ghana International School. She proceeded to University in Brighton, Sussex University, where she pursued a Bachelors Degree in Economics and Development in the United Kingdom. After graduation, she returned to Ghana and landed a job with ProNet, a community based service delivery civil society organisation. She later worked with La Palm Royal Beach Hotel before settling down with SIMNET, a South African ICT company working in Partnership with the Department of National Lotteries.

She joined Busy Internet as the Program Manager when the company was about nine months old and has worked up the ranks to the position of CEO. Busy Internet was established in 2001. It operates a big hall with 100 high speed flat screen computers, fully serviced executive office suites, high tech training and conference facilities and a 24hour digital documentation centre. They also operate Busy ISP; a customer focused Internet Service Provider with a suite of Internet solutions for small businesses and large corporate organizations. The company is located in a 14,000 square foot piece of land which formerly housed the defunct gas bottling factory in the heart of the city and it is owned by Busy Internet International and two Ghanaian investments companies, Fidelity Capital Partners, Data Bank and Softribe.

Through a grant from the World Bank’s Infodev Incubator Programme, Busy internet launched an important programme to select and assist start-up companies with business plans to incubate them within Busy Internet’s premises for a period of 18 months. The Busy Incubator is the first of its kind in West Africa. The small incubation programme is designed to increase the chances of survival of young companies’ by providing them with a good opportunity to grow in a supportive and nurturing environment as well as promote economic growth by fostering private sector development.

Ms. Sowah is married with two children, a boy and a girl.

Photo credit - Life for Africa