The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I get into a lot of discussion on Whatsapp groups these days. For good reason and good measure :-) I have blogged about some of those via these - especially about volunteerism due to a conversation I was part of in the NUGS Volta Women's Bloc . In April 2020, a video about Fred McBagonluri was circulating on Ghanaian Whatsapp. Fred went to MIT (my alma mater) , was the first Dean of Engineering at Ashesi (one of my favorite universities worldwide) and he now leads Academic City which is  also doing and growing well. Someone reacted to the video seeming to say Fred is able to do the things he does because he went to a top university abroad . I went to one of those and that is not the whole story. Africans who go to universities in Africa can also be world class. Let me expand upon my thoughts with actual submissions I made on the Whatsapp page - called South Tongu Business Hub . Those from Sogakope and nearby, what's up? KNUST alumni who are exposed and have educa...

I first met Derrydean Dadzie in 2004 while I was in Ghana during my summer vacation. I had come to Ghana with the MIT-AITI team to teach computer programming (Java & JSP) as well as entrepreneurship to a group of people (mostly university students). The 6-week program was held at Legon. One of the participants in the program from the year before,  Mr. Mohamed Abdulai, was working at the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT at the time. He invited me to come to KACE-AITI to talk to their students about ICT or something of that sort (I don't remember what exactly). Yes, I have been vimming people since since :-) One thing that gave me more vim as I left KACE-AITI that day, was the encounter with Derrydean. I had a new-found respect for Ashesi University , because of him. I was already a huge fan of Patrick Awuah then, for tackling a Ghanaian problem head on and being entrepreneurial, innovative and smart about it. Meeting Derrydean helped me understand Ashesi from the p...

When my friend sent me an email asking if I wanted to attend a lunch with Patrick Awuah, I was ecstatic. I had met Patrick before, at the Harvard Business School African Business Conference in 2005 but being able to get this face-to-face time over a free meal was too good to pass up. Patrick Awuah is my hero. I tried to tell him when I saw him but I don't know if he understood the gravity of my statement. Patrick is the kind of person most of us must aspire to; an individual whose heart is set on Africa's development, has taken, continues to take steps to realise the African dream. What has Patrick done to deserve my awe? He started the Ashesi University, a model university in Accra which is setting the pace for educating the next generation of African leaders, entrepreneurs, etc. Achimota alum (Akora) Patrick Awuah left the shores of Ghana in the 80's to pursue his undergraduate education at Swarthmore College. He loved the experience there so much that he broadcasts what ...