Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal is Ghana Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture.

Honourable Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal is currently Ghana’s Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture.  He was Ghana’s Minister for Business Development from 2017 to 2020 where he helped develop an ecosystem to support start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Dr. Awal once led the affairs of Chase Petroleum Corporation, a downstream oil and gas company that operates in Ghana as its Chief Executive. He was also the Chief Executive Officer of Graphic Communications Group Limited, rising from the position of reporter through the ranks to CEO. He also founded and led Marble Communications Group Limited, a private media and publishing house in Ghana. As an entrepreneurial expert, Dr. Awal had the occasion to offer his services as a consultant in the areas of business strategy, management, marketing, and communications, offering his services to Diplomatic Missions, Development partners as well as state institutions.

He is widely credited for developing an Entrepreneurship Policy for Ghana whilst serving in the capacity as Minister for Business Development. Dr. Awal is a strong advocate for linking classrooms to real-world experiences, and therefore has consistently maintained the need to “bring the classroom into industry, and industry into the classroom” towards creating economic transformation for Ghana and Africa at large.

He has represented the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as his Special Envoy, on special assignments which include missions to the United States of America, United Kingdom, India, Turkey, Germany, France, Hungary, China, Morocco, Iran, Italy, Central African Republic, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Qatar, Portugal and Guinea Bissau. Dr. Awal has copped numerous awards and recognitions.

This year, he has received three awards: Best Performing Minister of Ghana, Transformational Leadership Award in Tourism, and Lifetime Achievement Award in Service to Tourism Industry.

In 2022 he was given a lifetime Award for promoting “DESTINATION AFRICA” by the Africa Tourism Leadership Forum.

In 2019, he was adjudged ‘the Most Business-Oriented Minister’ of Africa by the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF). He was also named ‘the Best Performing Minister’ and the ‘Most Outstanding Minister in Ghana’ for 2018 and 2019 respectively by the Ghana Entrepreneur and Corporate Executive Awards. In 2009, the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) awarded Dr. Awal as ‘Ghana’s Marketing Man of the Year’, and impressively also, declared him ‘the Most Respected Chief Executive Officer’ of the country in the same year. He was also awarded by The Mediterranean Tourism Foundation for Innovative Tourism in 2021.

Dr. Awal holds a Doctorate in Business Administration with a specialty in succession planning and business competitiveness from the Swiss Business School and three master’s degrees, one in Applied Business Research from the Swiss Business School, Switzerland, an Executive Masters in Business Administration from the University of Ghana Business School, Legon and a Masters in International Journalism from the University of Wales, United Kingdom.

Dr. Awal believes in continuous professional and personal education and participates in study and training opportunities including courses in Business Strategy at Harvard Business School, USA, and oil production and management at Oxford, United Kingdom.

As a trailblazer in the entrepreneurial and political landscape in Africa, Dr. Awal was the brainchild behind the flagship project in the tourism sector, dubbed ‘Destination Ghana’, which was launched by the President of the Republic of Ghana H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in April 2022 in London, United Kingdom.

Under Dr. Awal’s leadership, Ghana seeks to position herself as the most preferred tourist destination in Africa. This objective along with the aforementioned achievements attest palpably to Dr. Awal’s unwavering commitment as a business and political leader who has the vision to see improvement in the entrepreneurial and business ecosystem in Ghana and Africa through trade and investment and sustainable tourism.