Pearl Nkrumah, (born c. 1980), is a Ghanaian banker, businesswoman, lawyer and corporate executive, who is the executive director at Access Bank Ghana Plc, a commercial bank, effective February 2022. She is the first woman to serve in that position, since the commercial bank was founded in 2009.
Nkrumah was born in Ghana in the 1980s. She attended local primary and secondary schools, before being admitted to the University of Ghana, the country’s largest and oldest public university. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. Her second degree, a Master of Business Administration, was obtained from the same university. She also holds a Bachelor of Laws degree, awarded by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.
She started her banking career circa 2004, as a bank teller at Standard Chartered Ghana. Over the years, she was given more responsibilities, rising through the ranks to assistant branch manager and then to business relationship manager. In 2012, after nearly 9 years at Standard Chartered Ghana, she left and was hired by Stanbic Bank Ghana.
At Stanbic Bank Ghana, Nkrumah continued to rise in rank, from relationship manager in commercial banking to head of new business, to head of SME banking. At the time she left Stanbic, she was the head of main markets, responsible for retail banking, analytics, banking platforms, partnerships and innovation. She is credited for establishing the Youth Banking Desk at Stanbic Bank Ghana, “an innovation to increase youth financial inclusion”.
With respect to the youth especially the girl child or women empowerment, Pearl has been instrumental in its growth in the West African sub region. In a piece by Ms Nkrumah published by 3news.com, she writes.
The next generation will need to unlearn the old traditional roles and ways of doing things. They will have to re-learn to embrace the needed change to challenge the status-quo. With automation, many of the front-line roles traditionally held by women in bank branches are all being changed, and the next generation needs to be ready to take up more challenging roles and leadership positions.
Despite the many challenges faced by women in the corporate space and especially in the financial services sector, it is worth mentioning that great strides have been made to support women through instruments such as legislative support, gender parity programmes and societal awareness.
The financial services industry is gradually making progress as it relates to gender balance in the workplace. Commitments to the UN’s programmes such as He4She may help change the narrative. To an extent, mindsets are shifting because of hard work and commitment, albeit very slowly. Financial institutions must be intentional in ensuring that diversity is reflected at the decision table; like all other critical matters, leadership must be evaluated on their representation of male to female quota.
Gender inequality has plagued the world for far too long. The perception that “the financial sector is a man’s world” should be eradicated
In her position as executive director at Access Bank Ghana, Pearl Nkrumah sits on the board of directors and is a member of the executive management team of that commercial bank.
Source: Wikipedia.com / 3news.com