Ruka is the Founder of Alldens Lane and the former Executive Director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), a pioneering business incubator providing services to enterprises in the green economy. These days, Ruka finds herself working with female CEOs and entrepreneurs, and advising public sector organisations and private corporations across Europe and Africa.
You work extensively on leadership development for women — what are the challenges you come across?
When we talk about supporting women entrepreneurs sustainably, I think the first thing to recognise is that while we might share common values around inclusion and equality, the realities women face in different countries and contexts are very different. What works in Ghana won’t necessarily work in Sierra Leone or Canada — so the starting point has to be designing programmes that are culturally and contextually relevant.
For me, inclusivity isn’t just about small gestures like allowing women to bring their children to workshops — it’s about addressing the deeper structural barriers that hold them back. For example, globally women still receive less than 7% of venture capital funding, and that’s largely because 98% of the people making those funding decisions are men. So, if we really want to support women entrepreneurs, we need to change who is in the room, who is making the decisions, and whose voices are being heard.
What specific approaches have you found to be effective in working with women entrepreneurs?
To be effective you need to take a holistic view of their lives. So much entrepreneurial support focuses on the career and not the person. A few years ago, I designed the Women Entrepreneurs Transformation Programme, which combined entrepreneurship training with personal and leadership development. We wanted to understand not just how women run their businesses, but what affects their decision-making and productivity — whether that’s menopause, caring for aging parents, or juggling domestic responsibilities alongside their professional goals.
I’ve found that women really value having a safe space to talk openly about these issues. They want to share experiences, offload, and also be given practical tools — whether that’s how to negotiate with family members for support, or how to structure their time differently. Those small, real-life shifts can make a big difference to their confidence and business outcomes.
What’s funny is that in seeing this, our male cohorts asked for their own, similar sessions. So we created Inclusive masculinity workshops, to help them understand how gender dynamics and empathy can make them better leaders too.
How would you describe the working culture of the founders you work with?
I really enjoy working with founders that have a forward-thinking and adaptable working culture. They’re not just focused on day-to-day transactions but on building something transformational — I try to get them to imagine what their businesses could look like in 20 or 25 years from now. That mindset pushes them to think about technology, sustainability, people, and funding in a much more strategic way.
It’s interesting, younger team members often prefer flexibility — they might do their best work at midnight rather than nine to five — while others are used to more traditional structures. That can create tension, but also great learning opportunities. I’ve found that the key thing is for both sides to make clear what their expectations are of the working relationship. There’s a lot of dialogue and compromise to find a balance that keeps productivity and accountability high.
How have you seen climate resilience approaches change and develop over the last 10 years? What’s coming next?!
Over the last few years, climate resilience has become impossible to ignore — it’s no longer an abstract issue, it’s part of everyday life. In many parts of Africa, it’s unbearably hot; farmers are watching their soil lose quality and their yields drop. Even though the continent contributes only around five percent of global emissions, we’re facing some of the worst consequences.
What’s really interesting, though, is how people are responding. There’s a real shift toward human-centered solutions — helping businesses and governments see that tackling climate change isn’t just about reducing emissions, it’s about protecting livelihoods, improving health, and even saving money. We’re seeing entrepreneurs build green businesses that create jobs and add to GDP while cutting carbon.
The big trend now is mindset: climate resilience is no longer seen as a burden, but as an opportunity to innovate, grow, and build a fairer, more sustainable future.
