Meet Ekua Zara Awonana Ghartey-Tsagli - Winner of Women Empowerment Personality at Millennium Excellence Award

Mrs Ekua Zara Awonana Ghartey-Tsagli of the Labadi Beach Hotel, who believes in making a meaningful impact in society through charities and advocacy for women empowerment and girl child education, won the Women Empowerment Personality category of the coveted Millennium Excellence Awards, receiving the accolade at a colourful ceremony at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi on July 17, 2021, which event attracted eminent dignitaries both local and foreign with the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the special guest of honour.

Ekua received a citation that said it all: "Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! The Life Patron, HRM Otumfuo Osei Tutu II- Asantehene and the illustrious Board of Governors of the Millennium Excellence Foundation, are pleased to confer on you the coveted Millennium Excellence Award for Women Empowerment in high recognition of your significant contribution to women development in the Hospitality Industry in Ghana. The Millennium Excellence Foundation exists to celebrate and showcase achievers and role models like you as shining footprints for others to follow. Your credentials in the Hospitality Industry is extraordinary and of great influence and motivation to others."

The Millennium Excellence Awards is one of the country’s most prestigious awards, held under the royal patronage of Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. It honours the best institutions and individuals in all sectors of the Ghanaian economy, who have risen beyond all odds to achieve excellence in their various fields and thus boost national development. This year’s edition, the 20th in the series, had more than 60 personalities and corporate bodies conferred with awards.

Ekua Zara Awonana Ghartey-Tsagli was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where her father was serving in the United Nations as a Director (International Labour Organization - ILO).

She began her primary education at St. Saviors’ School in Ikoyi, Lagos -Nigeria and continued to the British International School in Geneva, Switzerland. She proceeded to England to commence her secondary education at St. Andrews school, North Harrow, London. Her parents decided to bring her to Ghana to continue her secondary education in Achimota Secondary School where she completed her General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level (‘O’ Levels) certificate Examination. This decision was to enable their daughter to integrate within the Ghanaian system, learn a local language and make friends.

She left back to England for her General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level (‘A' Levels) at Farringtons, a girls’ boarding school in Chislehurst, Kent.

Thereafter, she entered West London College and Southgate University where she studied Hotel Management & Tourism.

Upon completion of her education, Metropole Hotels, Lonrho, employed her in 1991 into Ghana’s only 5-Star Labadi Beach Hotel. Her ice breaking practical and training experience began in the same year at the London Metropole Hotel for nine (9) months and the Birmingham Metropole Hotel for a further period of time before assuming duty as the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager complementing the few expatriate staff at the time.

With dexterity, Ekua has since developed a rare niche for herself in the country's hospitality space through her creativity and penchant for excellence.

These distinctive qualities and attributes make her stand out like an ‘ornament’ at the top of a Christmas tree.

Presently the Deputy Food and Beverage Manager, she has been quite instrumental and contributed significantly to the immense growth and transformation of the Labadi Beach Hotel operated by Legacy Hotel and Resorts of South Africa.

She is driven by purpose and her intimate desire in satisfying her customers and clients at all times, translating into increasing the bottom-line of her organization.

Ekua Zara Awonana Ghartey-Tsagli has supported and sponsored many charitable causes over the years.