Ntiamoah Foundation, a charity working in Birim North and Birim South, has marked its 20th anniversary by pledging a permanent scholarship scheme honouring its late founder and three community centres.
The plans sit at the centre of BEYOND 20: From Impact to Legacy, a year-long campaign the Eastern Region non-profit announced in a statement. They mark a change of emphasis. For two decades, much of the foundation’s work in the area has meant equipping libraries, clinics and classrooms. It now wants to build institutions designed to outlast any single donation.
Executive Director Mercy Quansah-Ansah said the anniversary was a chance to set up programmes that would still be running in 20 years, calling the aim “the shift from impact to legacy”.
The foundation says it has spent more than GH¢23 million, in today’s value, since businessman Robert Kwaku Appiah Asante, known as R.K.A. Asante, set it up in 2006. By its own count, that money has supported 34 schools and nearly 6,500 young readers, equipped 14 Community-based Health Planning and Services compounds, paid for 436 surgeries and reached more than 8,000 girls through menstrual health programmes.
The new R.K.A. Asante Scholarship Scheme will pair funding with mentoring, leadership and professional training, and community service. The first 20 scholars will be picked through what the foundation calls the 20 for 20 Awards. Scholarships are not new to the organisation: Quansah-Ansah told the Daily Graphic in an earlier interview that it had already awarded 259 of them to students at institutions across the country.
A second initiative, Program B.E.A.M., will fold the foundation’s reading clubs, libraries and computer training into a single education model covering literacy, life skills, creativity, digital learning and leadership.
The third, the Legacy Project, is a longer-term commitment to community buildings, including spaces for local history and heritage, learning and skills training. It starts with three multipurpose community centres aimed at youth development and recreation. The statement did not give locations, costs or a timetable for the centres.
Board Chair Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante said the next phase would need a wider circle of partners, and invited individuals and institutions to join.
Mining money has long been part of that circle. Zijin Golden Ridge Limited, which operates the Akyem gold mine in Birim North, is among the foundation’s long-standing partners. Derek Boateng, its Senior Manager for Sustainability and External Relations, congratulated the charity on the milestone. China’s Zijin Mining agreed in October 2024 to buy Akyem from Newmont in a deal valued at about $1 billion. Reports on the mine at the time put the end of its open-pit operations at 2027, with underground potential that could extend production beyond 2040.
The foundation has also worked with the United States-based Ghana Hope Foundation on free surgical outreach in the district.
The campaign will close in December with a fundraising gala dinner and a thanksgiving service in support of the foundation’s future programmes.
