Ruka Sanusi – The Business Whisperer

Ruka Sanusi is a highly accomplished management consultant with 28 years of international consulting experience in Europe and across sub-Saharan Africa. Her career to date has been built around her abilities to both provide advice on matters of business/organisational strategy, operations and transformation, and organizing resources and facilities to implement recommendations – she has strategic and operational ability. An astute professional, Ruka has provided technical and operational leadership on private sector transformation as well public sector reform assignments, sustainability and climate change programs, as well as large, complex change management programs. She conveys a deep knowledge of matters pertinent to business/organisational strategy and operations, climate action in the government and business sector; gender and entrepreneurship, as well as SME-growth.

Ruka is currently the Executive Director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC). Recognizing that private enterprise has a vital role to play in driving down greenhouse gas emissions and the transition to low carbon economies, GCIC is a pioneering national business incubator providing business services to enterprises in the green economy. GCIC was initially funded through an US$8.5m grant from the World Bank, and, having successfully raised additional funds under Ruka’s leadership, the Centre has now closed on a new $10m grant from a new donor for an additional four years. The GCIC’s work is at the nexus of climate change, private enterprise, economic development and ecological prosperity, with a particular focus on ensuring gender equality for women entrepreneurs. The Centre proffers a different approach to business leadership and commercial enterprise – a premise which pays attention to enterprise agility, prioritizes climate-smart innovation, ethical leadership, and gender equity.

Ruka is also Founder of Alldens Lane, a boutique business strategy consulting firm focused on providing executive and business coaching services to women- owned and women-led businesses across Africa. Through Alldens Lane, female CEOs and entrepreneurs are supported with business direction, balanced support and thought-provoking business performance and growth analytics, from which they can grow and transform their businesses – and their lives.

Before founding Alldens Lane, Ruka worked with PwC Ghana and PwC Nigeria for over a decade. As a member of senior management and Head of the Strategy and Operations Unit at PwC Advisory Services, Ruka led a team of management consultants and problem solvers helping global corporations and governments in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria to solve their complex business and organizational issues from strategy to execution. In 2010 she set up PwC Ghana’s Sustainability and Climate Change Advisory business unit, where she and members of her team advised clients in the government sector as well as private corporations on transitioning their business strategies, investments and operations to be more climate-responsive and climate smart

Ruka has advised governments, public sector organisations and private corporations on international projects and assignments across Europe, in 16 sub- Saharan African countries. She has lived in the UK, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana.