Samiha Yunus is a highly qualified and experienced professional in the field of social development and policy. With a Master’s degree in Social Policy from the University of Ghana, she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her work. Over the past ten years, Samiha has dedicated her career to serving rural women and underprivileged girls, working to improve their lives and empower them to reach their full potential.

Before her role at The Or Foundation, Samiha worked as a Program Assistant in the UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Program on FGM. In this role, she gained valuable experience implementing social interventions to address the challenges women and girls from rural Ghana face. Samiha’s interest in how behavioural science can influence social work has led her to pursue new and innovative approaches to social work.

Samiha Yunus is the founder of the ILMIHA, a research institute with a behavioural insight lab where they apply behavioural science to unlock data gaps needed to tackle social issues such as kayayei known as head potters, health equity, and uplift people beyond the poverty line through the application of data-driven initiatives that promote sustainable solutions.

Samiha’s ultimate career goal is to establish new and effective social work procedures that depart from traditional, business-as-usual approaches. She believes these new forms should be technology-oriented, scalable, and measurable, allowing for quantifiable outcomes and social impact to be determined.

“Towards the end of my Masters degree, I experienced a personal crisis as I did not know which way to go afterwards. I was stuck in between several options: going for a PhD, a second masters’ degree, getting into consulting, working in tech or an engineering firm, etc. For a period of several months I asked numerous questions to all the influential people I knew, did lots of research, read books/writeups, watched YouTube videos, and signed up for coaching lessons/sessions. When this phase was over, I found that many other friends and acquaintances who got to my level also got to that same “crisis-junction” of decision-making of what comes next after school. That was when I decided to turn my experience, findings, and connections into creating a platform for career mentorship and professional development for students and young professionals. This is how Guidetryb was born.”—Fater Akuhwa

Mr. Fater Akuhwa grew up in a middle-class family in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria where he also had his primary school education at Adonai International School in Gwagwalada and High School education at Calvary Arrows College Gboko in Benue State. He studied for one year at the University of Lagos before attaining a scholarship to study in Russia where he gained his bachelor’s degree from Kazan State Power Engineering University and a Masters degree from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. Fater is the third amongst five children (4 boys and 1 girl). “We did usual stuff while growing up: played soccer, table tennis, and other board games together. We traveled at least once a year to my hometown to celebrate Christmas and new year with our relatives. My family is a big deal to me”- Fater.

“My parents placed a high premium value on education and were and still are a great motivation to my siblings and I.”

Aside his parents, His mathematics teacher in high school had been one of the strongest influences in his life with few other people amongst many instilling in him a vision for an all-round excellence, strong moral uprightness, giving him the right definition of success, and deepening the convictions he had already built.
Further more, Mr. Akuhwa derives a lot of fulfillment from seeing people make progress and get transformed through their interactions with him. “A few friends have secured scholarships and jobs, passed exams, gained a clearer spiritual and moral perspective to life, overcome wrong habits, and experienced overall growth and progress. These I find to be quite fulfilling.”- F.A

Mr. Fater Akuhwa is the CEO “Guidetryb” – an EdTech platform that helps students and young professionals answer their most difficult career questions, especially in the context of the rapid changes occasioned by the corporate shift triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He is also the brain behind a mobile application called “SecretPlace” that helps create a virtual digital environment free of distractions for morning devotions.

“Before the end of the year my team and I hope to launch another platform which will be a sort of repository for more detailed and personal interaction between mentors and proteges”, he emphasized.
“Next year we also plan to do something related to AgriTech as we are aware of the global trend towards agriculture and the huge business opportunities that lie therein. Fintech is also an area worth exploring and we will likely bring out a product in that area before or in 2025”, he further enlightened

In conclusion, Mr. Akuhwa mentioned that a combination of some intentionality, serendipity, and luck has led him along his career path and if he had a chance he would be bolder and more urgent in taking the steps he felt led to take that initially appeared unconventional.

“I guess I was too concerned about what others would think and particularly afraid of breaking out of the ‘mold’ of the impression people had of me”.

“I want to gain so much competence in my field to the point of being called upon to influence policy at the highest levels of government. I want to speak to and mentor people at different levels of society. I’m also hoping to bring about a breakthrough through research to solve the energy problem of our world today. So to describe a scene: I’m walking into the White House, welcomed into the Oval Office by the President of the USA. I sit to have a conversation with him and advise him on a certain area. Then I leave to give some lectures to leaders of Tertiary Institutions and corporate executives and then, I’d return home to have a late lunch and personal mentorship interactions with high school and college kids, then dinner with my family later on.”

Mr. Fater Akuhwa stated that if there’s anything he would wish for himself, it is to be able to smile more often than he does now.

Miss Asana Issaka is young lady in her early 20s born in Accra Ghana. Driving straight into her education and leadership roles, Miss Issaka attended Good Shepherd International school for her basic education where she assumed the role of the compound oversear for her year group’s batch of prefects. She got into Holy Child School in Cape Coast to obtain her high school certificate. Holy Child school gave her the platform to take up the responsibility of the vice president of the Civic Education Club & the president of Ghana Muslim Students’ Association.

Asana continued through to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) where she got a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and a Master’s degree in International relations and diplomacy at GIMPA. While at KNUST, she became the FIRST female vice president for sociology students association KNUST, which is one of the most prestigious roles one can ever hold in her department and in GIMPA, the GRASAG gender commissioner. As we are still on Miss Issaka’s leadership roles; currently, Miss Asana Issaka is the youngest constituency executive for the National Democratic Party(NDC). She works as the deputy communications officer, NDC Weija Gbawe constituency.

Amidst the numerous challenging roles Asana takes up, She is a lover of kids and a huge fan of music. She also enjoys cooking and of course reading books as a bibliophile.

To wrap it all up,Asana Issaka is also the sole founder of MY COMPANION. She runs an NGO that seeks to address period poverty and also donates menstrual kits to adolescents across the country. A few donations were made to the girls in Gbawe Methdist School on Thursday, 23rd of February. You can view this in the subsequent slides.

Do well to contact & follow @HonHassy for the development of her projects and further questionings.