The Ghanaian Minaret

Born at Nkawkaw and baptised in the Church as “Paul”, Mussa Dankwah comes from a relatively large family with seven direct siblings.

He is the son of a “free-thinking” father who hailed from Apirede near Akropong Adukrom and a mother who comes from Apinamang of Akyem Abuakwa near Akwatia.

At the age of five, his parents relocated from Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region to Madina Zongo in Accra when his dad secured a job as a driver for the then Institute of Professional Studies (IPS), now the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA).

Despite belonging to a non-Muslim family, his exposure to Islam in a predominantly Muslim and Zongo community would lead to his embrace of Islam, leading to the adoption of the name “Mussa”, a name accidentally given to him, as he had originally chosen “Issah” to be his Muslim name.

His decision would inspire his younger brother to become a Muslim, making them the only two members of his family to embrace Islam.

Under the guardianship of his foster Muslim parents in Madina, he started Madrasa (Makaranta) at Najahiyya Islamic School and later went to Umar bun Khattab, where over time he learnt about Islam and the Arabic language.

The half-Akyem, half-Cherepon boy started primary school at Madina Roman Catholic (R/C) Primary from class one to class three.

He would move to the then newly opened Madina Islamic School for two terms before dropping out due to lack of financial support.

The situation was so precarious that he would spend the next four years of his life attending makaranta and leisurely engaging in the reading of newspapers and keenly following local and international news on the radio.

After the long hiatus, he decided to go back to school by enrolling at the La Nkwatanang Primary School, where he was placed in primary 6.

The younger Dankwah impressed on his teachers to move him a step ahead due to how exposed he considered himself to be after years of wide reading and following current affairs.

Despite having his wish granted, he could only manage to complete a term in form one, as he had to run away from school in his second term for stealing a Ga textbook.

Despite returning to school in the third term, he was feeling uninspired about schooling and therefore decided to discontinue, and in the process, he skipped primary and middle school to join a private secondary school, Albert Academy, now defunct, for his O-level education.

At Albert Academy, he excelled after three and a half years and became the first student with distinction from the school after writing the 1990 Nov/Dec exams.

Not studying any science subject limited his opportunity of pursuing A level, so he has to settle for a Diploma in Business Studies (DBS) programme at Accra Polytechnic.

A past demon of inadequate financial support rears its head, nearly making it impossible for the celebrated pollster to pursue his education.

At some point, he had to fall on Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, then the deputy minister of foreign affairs, who led him to the late Alhaji Rahim Gbadamosi, who was then the director general of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

To the relief of Mussa, Alhaji Gbadamosi agreed to sponsor the entire two-year programme.

Upon completion he was posted to a village near Yendi called Paansiya for national service, a village with relatively no social amenities or potable drinking water.

His experience at the village became a turning point in his life, where he vowed to diligently serve his country and eschew corruption.

His national service at the northern village was truncated by the Kokomba-Namumba war in 1994, forcing him to abandon the North and continue his national service at Akuse near Kpong.

Upon completion of his mandatory national service, he returned to Accra to pursue a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting.

While studying, he worked on a part-time basis at the Civil Aviation Authority.

Upon completion, he secured a full-time job at the Authority, where he worked at the stores as a storekeeper and later at the treasury departments as a finance officer.

In 1998, he travelled to Denmark to pursue a Bachelor of Science in International Business at the Aarhus Business College.

Upon completion he briefly moved to Germany before finally settling in the United Kingdom in 2000, where he studied at the London College of Accountancy and became a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in 2002.

He returned briefly to Ghana to work with Sky Consult as a senior consultant who helped develop a report on the Boankra inland port for the Ghana Shippers Council.

The work done, he recalled on a TV programme, would be instrumental in helping him secure a job in 2004 in the UK with the Transport for London (TfL), which was the integrated local government body responsible for most public transport and road networks in Greater London, including the Underground, buses, tramways, and managing roads.

Within a seven-year period, he rose from the position of an investment analyst to a finance manager.

In 2009, he returned to Ghana and worked as a consultant on numerous Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, including the GhanaCard project.

At different times, he worked in different capacities, such as economic and trade advisor, finance advisor, transactions and technical advisor, finance consultant and finance mediator on different projects.

In October 2012, he worked briefly as a chief finance officer of Identity Management System (IMS), a private partner working with the National Identification Authority to deliver biometric identity systems for foreign nationals in the country.

From November 2018 to March 2021, he was the Executive Director of the Margins ID Group in charge of commercial finance and business support.

Mr Dankwah also served as an independent non-executive member of the Margins ID Group and its subsidiaries.

Before January 2022, when he resigned from Margins, he was the chairman of the Finance Committee of the group.

Mr Dankwah had worked across many countries, including the United Kingdom, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Sudan, and has served as a consultant for the World Bank, International Finance Corporation and Castalia Strategic Advisors (USA).

He pursued a BSc in Applied Accounting at Oxford Brookes University and holds a Master of Science in Finance from London South Bank University.

He is also a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (UK) and an associate of the Institute for Risk Management (IRM).

After numerous years of working as a consultant, he identified the data science gap in the country’s political space, a situation that led to the establishment of Global InfoAnalytics Limited in March 2019, a research firm that specialises in, among other things, the gathering of polling data.

As a lead pollster, he provided clients with insights into geopolitical issues, political risk and elections.

His political research and opinion polling have helped investors to better appreciate Ghana’s political system, elections and political risks associated with investment.

His accuracy in the prediction of election outcomes since 2020 has made him a toast of many.

While many celebrate him for his polling craft, there are those who have fiercely criticised his methodology despite its efficiency, earning him the nickname “a Zongo lotto forecaster”.

He aspires to make the company a household name on the continent in the next decade when it comes to polling data on politics.