In celebration of Women's Month 2025, we spotlight remarkable African women leaders from the Graça Machel Trust's Expert Leaders Group (ELG). Among these trailblazers is Ms. Elsie Addo Awadzi, a leader whose 30-year career has been largely devoted to transforming financial systems and economies into more stable, resilient, and inclusive spaces.
A career defined by purpose
A personal journey towards economic advancement
"I have always been burdened with the desire to see everyone find their voice and discover their place in society, to live up to their full potential. Economic advancement has always been very important to me. I grew up as a young girl in a home where there was no discrimination between boys and girls in terms of access to education and other opportunities. Girls and boys did their respective share of house chores even if the chores tended to be different. I observed my mother work diligently as a nurse outside our home while effectively managing her domestic responsibilities. I saw how her income supplemented what my father provided to care for my siblings and I. I also saw many of my aunties do the same with their own families. These early examples made an impression on my young mind, and consciously or not, I grew up with no doubt in my mind that with education and hard work I could be anything I dared to dream to be. Later in life when I qualified as a lawyer, my first employer was a woman. I learned first-hand what it meant to be a women holding her own in a male-dominated field at the time and doing so courageously and passionately. While working in those early days, I was privileged to volunteer once a week at legal clinics organised by the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Ghana Chapter. These clinics provided legal support on a pro bono basis to women who were dealing with various forms of injustice relating to inheritance, child support, property settlement after divorce, and related matters which often left them in a precarious financial situation with little or nothing to fall back on. One of the clients whose cases I worked on during that time was a young mother of four very young children who was separated from the father of those children. She had no source of livelihood of her own, could barely take care of her children, and had no support from their father. They lived in an uncompleted building and soon, the children had to fend for themselves through unorthodox and dangerous means. Needless to say, they did not attend school. I took on the case to pursue a claim for child support against the father of the children and supported the young woman through months of court hearings, during which time I had to provide money for her transport to and from court and a little extra to feed her children. Ultimately, the court awarded child support in her favour, although the prospects of her obtaining any meaningful support were slim, given that the man himself had no stable job to provide a consistent means of upkeep for the four children. I was heartbroken and frustrated. From those early experiences, it became clear to me that a mix of factors worked against women's ability to thrive or even survive economically and by extension their children and others connected to them. These factors included cultural norms, family backgrounds, inadequate legal protection for women, lack of access to education, and limited access to finance to help women launch, sustain, or grow businesses. It was evident that women who had their own sources of livelihood--whether a thriving job or business--were better positioned to support themselves and to contribute more fully to their families, communities, and national development efforts."
A career defined by purpose
Ms. Addo Awadzi's professional journey is as diverse as it is inspiring. With a multidisciplinary background in law and finance, she discovered early in her career that she needed to apply herself beyond self-limiting labels and take risks to excel and realise her dreams. The odds were sometimes against her as a woman operating in male-dominated fields, whether it was as a young lawyer daring to venture into the world of finance, or as a young woman in her early thirties daring to start a boutique corporate and financial law firm, whether she was regulating Ghana's then nascent capital market as a Commissioner of the Securities & Exchange Commission, advising countries on economic and financial reforms as an international public servant working with the International Monetary Fund, or working as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana--the second woman to hold this position in the Bank's 68-year history. Her passion for constant professional and personal growth and impact has guided her journey and kept her focused.
Leading banking sector reforms and inclusive and sustainable finance
While serving as Deputy Governor at the Bank of Ghana from February 2018 to February 2025, Ms. Addo Awadzi oversaw transformative reforms--from resolving failed financial institutions to implementing policies that promoted financial stability during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent macroeconomic crisis.
Mindful of the existing 11 percent gender gap in access to finance in Ghana according to the World Bank's Findex Report of 2021 (compared to a 12 percent average for Sub-Saharan Africa, and a 6 percent average for the developing world), she believed that initiatives that promoted more access to finance for women would go a long way to shape better macroeconomic performance and development outcomes. She passionately led efforts to promote a financial sector that would be sound, stable, inclusive, and resilient, helping to ensure that no one was left behind in economic development efforts.
During her tenure, the Bank of Ghana implemented several initiatives to promote a more inclusive financial sector. These included the launch of Ghana's Sustainable Banking Principles in 2019 which among other things mandated banks to promote financial inclusion and gender equity in their operations, with quarterly reporting to the Bank of Ghana on compliance. A new online supervisory reporting tool was introduced requiring banks and other regulated institutions to report supervisory data to the Bank of Ghana on a sex-disaggregated basis, helping the Bank to better analyse gender-related financial access trends to inform policies and regulation. The Bank also continued to strengthen critical credit market infrastructure such as the credit reporting system and the Collateral Registry, and licensed the Development Bank Ghana, to help increase the supply of credit to small and medium-sized businesses the majority of which are owned by women.
Other reforms included enhanced consumer protection and financial literacy initiatives including those specifically designed for women, and policies that fostered the growth of digital financial services--contributing to improved financial access for women in Ghana, as highlighted in the World Bank's 2021 Findex Report. Ms. Addo Awadzi also chaired the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI)'s Gender Inclusive Finance Committee as the Bank of Ghana's representative from 2020 to 2024, during which time the Committee led the preparation of a Policy Model for Gender Inclusive Finance which was published in September 2024.
Joining the Graça Machel Trust's Expert Leaders Group
Mrs. Graça Machel formed the ELG in 2021. This group includes high-level female leaders in the finance sector from across Africa, one of whom is Ms. Addo Awadzi. She has been a prominent member, drawing on her extensive economic policy and regulatory background to push for policies that promote digital inclusion, gender-inclusive finance, and long-term policy and structural reforms that support women's economic advancement to help reduce, if not eliminate, existing gender gaps. She also helped shape country-specific projects, such as the Graça Machel Trusts' Women's Leadership for Financial Inclusion (WLFI) project in Ghana.
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WLFI's impact in Ghana
Since 2022, the WLFI project has brought together African women leaders to drive inclusive economic recovery post Covid-19 pandemic. With Ms. Addo Awadzi's guidance and with collaboration with the Network for Women's Rights (NETRIGHT), WLFI successfully championed gender-responsive financial policies. The initiative also launched and expanded the Women in Finance (WiF) platform in June 2024, which has since grown to over 100 female leaders, strengthening its ability to advocate for gender-sensitive economic and financial sector policies.
WLFI has also delivered targeted training programs in financial literacy, business planning, and technology, enabling Ghanaian women to secure funding and grow their businesses. A collaborative workshop produced innovative financial transaction models tailored for rural women. Some entrepreneurs reported a 25% revenue increase after applying new management skills. This multi-stakeholder approach highlights the importance of public-private collaboration in closing gender gaps and promoting sustainable growth.
Impact and legacy in Ghana and Africa
Ms. Addo Awadzi's story is a reminder that female representation in leadership in key economic policy and regulatory institutions matter, and that dedicated leadership can catalyse systemic change. As more women gain the tools and confidence to excel, her legacy inspires and paves the way for a future where financial inclusion and gender equity are central to economic progress.
We celebrate Ms. Elsie Addo Awadzi for the profound impact she has made across Ghana and Africa and for the promise of a future where every woman has access to the financial tools necessary to thrive and contribute fully to building resilient communities and nations.
