Dr Yaw Ansu is a globally respected economist with over 36 years of professional experience spanning several countries. For 26 years, Dr Ansu worked at the World Bank, holding various technical and managerial positions, including Country Director, Sector Director for Human Development in Africa and Network Director and Chairman of the Sector Board for the Economists Network in the World Bank. Dr Ansu’s work at the World Bank focused mainly on economic management and growth strategies as well as human capital development. Dr Ansu served for 7 years as Chief Economist for the Africa Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), based in Accra, where he led teams of international experts to research and publish on economic transformation, agricultural transformation, and youth employment issues in Africa and Ghana.

For the past 4 years, Dr Ansu has, amongst other things, worked as Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Finance, and as part of this role, he was Chairman of the Task Force that advised the Minister on the best options for creating a national development bank and applying both international and local best practice for development banks. He was also the Chairman of the Working Group set up by the Minister to oversee the establishment of the Development Bank Ghana in line with the recommendations of the Task Force. Dr Ansu led the development of the Ghana CARES/Obaatanpa Programme. He was also a member of the Ghana Beyond Aid Committee and the lead author of the Ghana Beyond Aid Strategy Document. Dr Ansu is a member of the National Development Planning Commission. Dr Ansu is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Ghana Incentives-based and Risk-sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL), an institution that provides Partial Credit Risk Guarantees to banks to encourage them to lend to agriculture and agribusiness.

Dr Ansu holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master of Science in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University (USA) and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Cornell University (USA). His secondary education was at Wenchi Secondary School and Achimota School.