Professor Grace Asante Nkansa is presently the Vice Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). 

She is also an ordained priest of the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer Anglican Church at KNUST. 

Having studied Economics for more than half her life, she wields the accolade as Ghana’s first female Professor in Economics. 

After living shortly with her father in the then Brong Ahafo of Ghana, Prof. Asante Nkansa moved to Kumasi to continue with her basic education at KCC School in South Suntreso. 

She sat for the common entrance exams twice and gained admission to St. Louis SHS for her secondary education where her journey to accentuate the motto of her Alma mater “The Pacesetters” began. 

But she would be hit with a difficulty that nearly truncated her education. 

“When I finished school, I got pregnant. So I stayed at home, gave birth, and I was sitting in front of my house. Then one man came to visit his family. He said, people are talking about you. I said, why? They say you are the most brilliant lady here, but because you have given birth, you are sitting here, you can't go to school and other things,” she recalled. 

These words from the man were no mere words of encouragement but a reflective statement that would change the destiny of the single mother. 

Prof Asante Nkansa, convinced to make a difference, returned to school to complete her sixth form at Osei Kyeretwie SHS where she pursued Business as a programme. 

She had to juggle education with her petty trade while she catered for her child. 

“I started secondary school with my child. It was not easy. I had to send him to school. When I closed, I was still at the library and studying before I came. And I was working alongside, so I could take care of the child. So one interesting time, I had to write a paper. At times I write morning and then afternoon paper. So when I finished writing the morning paper, I would rush to town to come and collect my money and do my business. Then I would rush back to go and write the exam,” she recalled. 

After a challenging terrain at secondary school, she proceeded to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for her undergraduate studies.

At the time, she was married but had to draw a balance between family care and tertiary education where she pursued a combined programme in Economics, French and English. 

“I didn't have a problem with economics. I would get all the A's in economics. But the language is 40, 45, and 50. So it pulled me down. So when I finished school, I completed lower. So coming to the university to teach was not something I even thought of. I proceeded to have my national service,” she said. 

Completing her mandatory national service after university, Prof Asante Nkansa landed a teaching job at the Adventist SHS, Bantama.

She worked as an English tutor at the school until securing an opportunity to work at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly where Professor Nkansa Asante served in the capacity of a public administrator at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly.  

She harnessed a study leave opportunity to further her education at the University of Ghana and studied Economic Policy Management. 

“When I finished. I had the opportunity to go and do my internship at the Africa Development Bank in Abidjan. And I worked there as a research officer in the Governance Division.  But later on, I came back after the internship. To come and continue my work at the KMA. Then they sent me to Mampongteng. But they called me back to be a research assistant. Then I went there to continue. Because of the war at that time, the bank moved to Tunis. And I said, no, I didn't want to go to Tunis. I can't live there. So I was in Abidjan. They left some skeleton staff. But because of the war and other things, I ran away and came back,” she recounted. 

Back to KNUST: the becoming Ghana’s first female Economics Professor 

In 2004, Prof Grace Asante Nkansa returned to KNUST where she was offered a position to lecture at the Department of Economics. 

Her resilience and zest to wade through to the top saw her rise from junior lecturer to the Head of the Department in 2019. 

“It took me six years before my senior leadership came. And they wiped off three years. I worked and then I started reading my PHD. I took study leave. So they reduced my load for me. And I was able to go through the PHD. Then from senior lecturer to associate professor, I submitted my paper when it was due. That was 2016. Because my senior lecturer brought it to, instead of 2008, I started working in 2004. Instead of 2008, they pushed me to 2011,” she said. 

Having worked for close to two decades at the university, she currently holds the position as the Vice Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, KNUST. 

Her journey to becoming Ghana’s first female Professor of Economics did not come easy. 

“I was able to submit my associate professor 2016. Then I went on sabbatical. When I came, it was there. It has not been processed. And I struggled through the emotional things. So later on, they did it for me. And they back-dated it to 2018. Because I made a mistake. Some technical knockouts. I did some 2017 papers. So all the papers I wrote for 2017, 2018, useless. Because when you are promoted, the papers, up to the time you were promoted, you won't use them again. You can't use them again. You have to get new papers from the time you've been promoted. When I was due, I submitted in 2022,” she said. 

She had only thought of applying for higher rank at the university but little did she know it was a double blessing in disguise. 

“When the letter came, my young colleague said, " I think you are the only female that has a full professor in economics in Ghana. I said, wow, is that so? So they started googling and doing that. Before I realized it was so, I said, wow! That's what God can do. I never thought it was so. I thought I was just applying for my promotion to get to the higher level, not knowing that God was doing something spectacular for me,” she said.  

Additionally, she holds a Visiting Lecturer position at the Joint Facility for Electives (JFE) of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). 

“People think economics is difficult. No. It's because maybe... So I prefer teaching first year. I always want to teach first year. When you get the principles, economics are principles. So when you understand the principles, even if you are working in mathematics, and you get it wrong, the most important thing is for you to accept the principles.

So when you understand the principles, economics is not difficult. It's the same thing that you do from secondary school up to Ph.D. except that you aggravate, and then you become a small mathematician,” she advised. 

Research Focus 

Having worked in the teaching field for close to two decades, Professor Nkansa Asante's scholarly endeavours primarily focus on Economic Policy Analysis, Monetary Economics, and Financial Economics. 

In her 2017 research revealed how institutional quality is necessary in impacting the financial development of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa.

But Prof. Asante Nkansa observed through the study that despite financial structural adjustment programs and other measures to develop the financial sector, it still dwindles affecting economic growth.  

Prof. Asante Nkansa posits that an effective judiciary service system, a stable political dispensation and regulatory quality would positively affect financial development on economic growth. 

“Because looking at the institutional quality, the legal system, when the legal system is working well, how well does it complement the financial development so that it can enhance growth? We are looking at the legal system, partnership, and business growth. They are all borders of the legal system of the economy. So when the legal system is working, you realize that it will complement the financial development, and then the growth will come.” 

She continued that: “if the private sector, the partnership, the corporate bodies, and all those, until they are working well, if the legal system, let's say, you form a partnership with somebody, and there are financial issues, the judiciary system settles it on time. Can you imagine how it will compel people, or maybe call in foreign investments and other things, so that at least the financial systems that we have, it will complement it, and then growth will come”. 

Prof Asante Nkansa also cites political stability in a country that attracts foreign investments to thrive in the financial sector. 

“How stable is our political system? If it works well, they serve as signals. So when they see that the political system is stable, they serve as signals to the rest of the world, and people will pull in their investment. We don't need to be advertising for foreign direct investment. What the government does, can call for the foreign direct investment. Because they all want to grow their business, they all want to make profits. So if the government is stable, and all these things are in place, you don't need to be giving these tax concessions and other things that we do. They will come.”  

Ecclesiastical Life 

Beyond her academic pursuits, Prof Asante Nkansa is also an ordained priest in the Anglican Communion, serving at the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer Anglican Church at KNUST. 

Her journey to becoming a minister of God took a mystical but interesting encounter. 

It all began five years ago when, according to her, she received a strange phone call from a number which had “Jesus Christ” saved as the contact name. 

“so I picked the call, hello hello hello nobody spoke to me and I know that when you say hello hello at times it cuts off but this one didn't cut off i have to cut it to myself because I realized I was going to speak French it took some time so i cut it off so when I went to I just went straight to my bedroom and then I knelt down and then prayed, Lord, it's like Samuel 1. Speak to me, whatever you want me to do, I will do. And then I got up, nothing happened again. So after some time I was in Kumasi here, I was in Salome. Then the call came again, Jesus, my own telephone number. I said, what's going on? So I quickly went out. Then, hello, Lord, speak to me, this, this, this, at Patase. He didn't say anything. So it took a long time, so I cut it off. So I became alarmed,” she recalled. 

Prior to becoming an Anglican priest, she was the president of the St. Mary’s Guilt for the parish and gradually rose to become the president for the diocese but presently holds the position as the National Vice President for the association.  

The little notes and personal versions of her priest’s sermons was a catalyst to her becoming a woman of the Gospel. 

“a time came in my life when I go to church and when the priest is giving the sermon I always go to through my Bible and with my notebook beside me before we finish I’ve also written another version of what you said the same passage but I have a different version of what you said so I had a series of them then at a point in time,” 

She added that after the encounter: “the voice told me that the Bible messages that I've written, I should print them into Bible trash. And start sharing to people. So I started. So I started printing with my own money. At times, I print 4,000. And then I would share. People were coming for it. Some people, my church people, the Nigerians, they take one. They would come to Nigeria. And then I didn't know.

And they also print and then start sharing there. Until at times, everyone is not coming. They will come and ask you, when are the trash coming? So I was doing it. I've been doing it for quite some time.” 

Boosting Ghana’s economy 

Ghana has been through a lot of economic quagmire pushing its citizenry into a lot of distress. 

But what does Prof Nkansa Asante think about the current economic dispensation?

“Going for the IMF loan facility is not the end of the problem. It's just like you have a sore. You don't treat the inner part but you are just stressing the surface. Because it's not the money that we don't have. It's the system, the structures are not working well. Because if you go and take a loan and we don't cut off the corruption, where will the money go? It will not come and do what it's supposed to do. If you go for an IMF loan where is the money going? Is it going straight to where it's supposed to go? If it doesn't go straight to where it's supposed to go the IMF will not solve our problems for us. So it's the system that we have to correct. That's why I'm saying that the legal system, the political system, the governance and all those things that I mentioned have to work well. If they work well, we won't even need the IMF. Look at the money that goes waste in corruption,” she bemoaned.  

She believes corruption and other related scandals in the public sector is derailing the country’s economic growth. 

She quizzes how some politicians amass wealth for themselves within the few years they serve in the capacity of government officials. 

“The sort of thing, the four years that he's been there, if God blesses him and becomes a minister or something, the sort of things he can do for all his work life, he's not been able to do it. What is going on there? Because they know when they go, they get cheap money. So they always want to get there. Which is not the best.  So the corruption should be checked. It's a waste of a lot of money and resources. So that is for their part. And the management of the economy should be taken seriously. Because when the macro economy is stable, it stabilizes a lot of things. When the government deficit goes down, when it's high, it depends on how you manage it, how you pay for it,” she said. 

But Prof Nkansa Asante is quick to add the growth will not only depend largely on the government but an inclusive fight. 

She is advocating the consumption of locally produced products to revamp the country’s economic status. 

“For the citizenry, we have to get interested in what is produced in Ghana. We have to buy something made in Ghana. The more we have developed a taste for foreign goods. With the idea that they are consuming foreign goods. The more you do that, the more the value of our city goes down. And when the city goes down, it's a whole lot. It stabilizes the exchange rate, the economy. And it can distort even the inflationary figures. And it distorts the whole economy. Because we depend so much on imports. And it's bad.

She continued: “those companies that bring things here, they didn't start just like where they are. But because we are buying more of their goods, they are producing more.

And the more you produce, the more you get over your mistakes and then you become perfect. So when we give them the room, they will improve. And the quality will be better for us”. 

Investing in Researches to thrive development 

While many countries including the West thrive on research works to inform policies, the same cannot be said about the African continent. 

Many countries including Ghana have made meagre investments into research. 

Some researchers and industry players attribute the country's stunted development to lack of extensive research to complement government policy implementations. 

“… Even some of the findings our undergrads discover are interesting but they are just there. It's not being tapped and we academicians cannot take my report, my finance ministry takes this one and even at times when they invite you to come in. I mean discuss everything they don't really make use of some of the recommendations that we give,” Prof Nkansa Asante decried. 

Prof Nkansa Asante believes an establishment of a designated office to oversee research projects that would inform policy is necessary. 

If we really want to make good use of research because they pay research allowance to us but because at times they don't even know the findings, they don’t make use of them. That's why I'm thinking that maybe we may need an office or a structure to link the findings, all research can be done somewhere with people sitting there to try to tap what's relevant to the country at any point in time to make it available to policymakers. We publish in other countries and make use of some of our findings. But our country, they are not making good use of it,” she emphasized.