Ghana : Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo, promoter of gender equality in the mining sector

Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo is an entrepreneur in Ghana’s mining sector. She founded her company, which specializes in drilling and mining supplies.  As the president of « Women in Mining in Ghana », the businesswoman also advocates for the rights of women working in the mining sector. In 2016, she was ranked in the “100 inspirational Global Women Mining” by Women in mining (UK).

With a degree in French linguistics and communications, she began her career in the mining sector in 1993. A completely different field from her initial training. She joined « International Gold Resources », a company specialising in the acquisition of concessions and viable exploration projects in Ghana and French-speaking West Africa, as an administrator. She spent 2 years there and then, worked for several companies in the field of mining, natural resources in Africa, exploration and drilling, including Corstor Ghana Limited (2004 to 2008), Birim Gold Fields (2004) and Resource Service Group (1995 to 2004). She also worked at Westernex, a company supplying to the mining and exploration industry in Australia and worldwide. From 2010 to 2014, she was regional sales consultant for West Africa for the company.

In 2009, she founded George Barnes Ltd, a company specialising in the supply of tools, products and consumables for the mining, exploration and drilling industries across Africa. In addition to her entrepreneurial hat, she specializes in gender issues in mining governance, social and governance issues in the mining sector, and the construction of regional value chains in Africa.

In 2012, at a time when the ghanaian mining sector was experiencing a slowdown, she co-founded the Accra Mining Network, an organization that brings together professionals in the extractive industry in Ghana, of which she was president from 2015 to 2020. From this experience, she created in 2015 “Women in Mining Ghana”, an organization promoting women working in the mining sector in Ghana (industry, academia and government) through training, mentoring, networking and research projects…

Committed to the promotion of women in the mining sector in Africa, she was appointed in 2019 president of the Association of Women in Mining in Africa.

Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo is considered today one of the leading actors in the mining sector in Africa. In 2016, she was ranked in the « 100 Global Inspirational Women Mining » by Women in mining (UK). In 2018, « Invest in Africa » awarded her the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2020, she received an Honorary Doctor Honoris causa title from the University of Mines and Technology in the UK.