Zongo Development Fund CEO honoured
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Zongo Development Fund(ZoDF), Arafat Sulemana Abdulai, has been honoured for emerging as the best CEO for his effort in championing poverty alleviation and job creation through the fund.
He received the recognition at the 2020 Ghana Leadership Awards ceremony in Accra.
The Ghana Leadership Awards is an event that seeks to celebrate and recognise persons with most outstanding and exemplary leadership that impacts positively in the development of Ghana and Africa as a whole.
It was under the theme; “ Celebrating our heroes in a peaceful Ghana, one people working together.”
The annual event convenes and showcases the highest level of leaders in business, government, academia, philanthropy, media, celebrity, the clergy and social sector players among others.
Other award winners for this year included the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliament Affairs, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu; the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu; Osei Kwame of Despite Group of Companies; Former Interior Minister, Mark Wayongo, and Yofi Grant of Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) among others .
Addressing the press later, Arafat Abdulai thanked the organisers for the honour.
He also expressed his profound gratitude to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for creating the ZoDF and making him the head.
“The award shows that the activities of ZoDF in deprived communities are being appreciated. This will encourage us to do even more in the area of alleviating poverty and improving the lives of Zango and Inner city residents,“ he added.
Arafat Abdulai mentioned social intervention programmes such as zangoprenure which he said had been introduced under the Zango Fund where 1,200 youth are being trained in various artisanal skills in the Central Region.
Arafat Sulemana, 52, is a specialist in social work and conflict management.
The CEO of the ZoDF holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work with Sociology from the University of Ghana and a Master of Arts degree in Conflict Management and Intercultural Work from the Alice Salomon University of Applied Science, Berlin, Germany.
He was a Headmaster of the Presbyterian Junior High School in Tamale, from 1994-1996 before joining the ZoDF.
He also worked as an advanced social work practitioner in London for 10 years.
Arafat Abdulai is a member of the British Association of Social Workers and Health and Care Professions Council of the United Kingdom.