Isobel Acquah

Focus Areas

Isobel Acquah is the Director of the Center for Law and Innovation (CLI) at Certa Foundation, Rwanda. CLI achieves its mission of sustainable development and shaping resilient legal frameworks by nurturing the upcoming generation of Pan-African legal professionals, pioneering empirical legal research, and conducting policy analysis on pressing global issues. It also fosters an ecosystem that thrives on dynamic entrepreneurship and the efficient administration of justice.

Ms. Acquah is a dual-qualified transaction and corporate advisory lawyer with a background in investment banking and a focus on technology and financial services. She is a multilingual professional with over 20 years of legal and business experience across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. She has previously worked at Bank of America (UK), the Whitaker Group (Ghana/US), and AB & David (Ghana). She works with Tech Startups to provide legal and operational oversight, corporate and board governance, and transactional management support. As a corporate advisor with significant experience across global businesses, Isobel delivers comprehensive support to senior management teams to develop and document robust frameworks that address the unique challenges of Environment, Social, and Governance principles in the Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, she provides leadership on corporate governance and board capacity, gender equity, and developing metrics to track the responsible stewardship of business and impact objectives in line with global principles and goals.

“As a visionary leader, I am passionate about the potential of young professionals and startup founders to contribute to the socio-economic development of Africa through strategic investment, mentoring, and upskilling.”