Mintah Emerges First Black Female ICC Global Executive Board Member

The Founder, West Blue Consulting, Ms. Valentina Mintah, has been elected as the first black female global Executive Board Member at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Mintah, an Information Technology (IT) guru emerged Executive Board member of the chamber at ICC at a recent virtual 2020 World Council Meeting.

The new ICC Executive Board is the most diverse to date in terms of gender, ethnic and regional balance. The board is chaired by MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, while Maria Fernanda Garza is First vice Chair. Aside Mintah, other new members of the Board are Sheikh Khalifa Mohammad Al-Thani (Qatar), Sebastian Escarrer (Spain), Dario Gallina (Italy), Shinta Kamdani (Indonesia), Takeshi Niinami (Japan) and Jane Sun (China). Patrick Obath (Kenya) and Harshi Pati Singhania (India) were re-elected to serve second term.

Mintah, a hall of famer in the MMS Woman of Fortune Hall of Fame (WoFHoF) is internationally recognised for her expertise in trade facilitation and business process automation, and will be the first black woman to hold the position.

She established West Blue Consulting in 2012, and has led the company to successfully develop and deliver a national single window platform for Nigeria, significantly optimising and improving trade facilitation in the country, which saves over $25 million monthly for the Nigerian Government..

West Blue Consulting in 2014, further harnessed its customs modernisation expertise to develop and implement a national single window platform for Ghana. Within two years of its implementation at the seaports across Ghana, the platform had saved the government about $500 million. This boosted Ghana’s ranking on the Ease of Doing Business index of the World Bank in addition to becoming a vibrant hub for continental trade.

Speaking on her election, Mintah who serves as Vice Chair of ICC Ghana said: “despite the current global health and economic crisis, Africa cannot and should not be overwhelmed. It is therefore vital that intra- African trade is strengthened in line with the goal of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement AfCFTA. Therefore, leveraging on the growth opportunities for sustainable intra-African trade is an objective that should be supported for the benefit of the African economy. In addition, focus should be on ways to empower and support small business owners to survive and thrive in the era of covid-19 and beyond, using digital technology and innovative business practices.”

Secretary General of the ICC, John W.H. Denton AO said ICC is delighted to welcome Valentina Mintah to its global Executive Board.

“Throughout her career, Valentina has championed international trade facilitation both in her home region of West Africa and in a number of transitional economies across the world. With her additional role as Vice Chair of ICC Ghana, she is uniquely placed to promote the strengthening of commercial and trade ties within high growth global markets”, he said..

The newly constituted ICC Board has a two -year term which begins on July 1, 2020.

ICC is the institutional representative of more than 45 million companies in over 130 countries across the world. The Executive Board is responsible for developing and implementing ICC’s strategy, policy and programme of action, and for overseeing the financial affairs of the organization. Executive Board members further support the work of ICC national committees, whose mission is to promote the interests of their local economy.