Nana Efua Rockson, a Chartered Marketer has been appointed as Head of Communications and Public Relations at the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA), a UNESCO Category II Institute at the University of Cape Coast.

Prior to joining the IEPA, Nana Efua was the Group Head, Corporate Affairs and Digital Marketing at GLICO Group Ltd where she led the brand building, communications (traditional and digital) and corporate reputation management of all the six companies of the GLICO Group.

She was also a pivotal person at the Ghana Insurance Association’s (GIA) Public Relations, Events and Stakeholder Committees where she brought her professional experience to bear on every committee’s deliverables; all these culminating in her receiving “The Unsung Hero Award (Insurance Category)” at the 2020 Ghana Insurance Awards ceremony.

Nana Efua holds a Master of Business Administration (Marketing) from the University of Leicester-UK, a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Cape Coast-Ghana, and a Diploma in Public Relations and Advertising from the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

She has also obtained a Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing, United Kingdom (CIM-UK), a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing from the African Institute of Technology & Entrepreneurship (AITE)/Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG), where she was adjudged the overall best student in Digital Marketing and a Professional Diploma in Insurance from the Ghana Insurance College where she was adjudged the overall best student in Commercial Insurance. 

Nana Efua has also participated in several courses and seminars such as, Corporate Governance, Brands Management, Public Relations Protocols, Setting Standards in Corporate Social Responsibility Practice in Ghana, Event Management, among others.

Nana Efua is an accredited member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, United Kingdom (CIM-UK) the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) and the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Ghana.

She is also an affiliate member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana (CIIG).

The award winning professional that she is, Nana Efua is passionate about Marketing and she has pledged to build the IEPA brand to new heights to deliver its objective of scaling-up short courses and other stakeholder engagements on contemporary issues in education as well as engage in research, capacity building and support sector-wide policy development and planning in education within the West African sub-region.

Ask why the shift from the insurance sector to the education sector, Nana Efua had this to say: Every professional marketer must be able to plan, build, manage or upgrade any brand irrespective of the sector by applying the right mix of marketing strategies and professional expertise to a brand.

“I am passionate about marketing and I have built and managed brands excellently.

I bring this wealth of experience and dynamism to bear on the IEPA brand in helping to achieve the vision of becoming a strategic Centre of Excellence in Educational research and training of educational planners, administrators, managers and leaders in Africa.

The Director-General of IEPA, Dr. Michael Boakye-Yiadom was positive about the new management team at IEPA and commented specifically that; Nana Efua is a valuable asset to IEPA.

She brings fresh perspectives from her experience of managing brands in the private sector to bear on a public institution like IEPA.

Her dynamism, passion and innovativeness to drive excellently the IEPA brand is commendable. I am excited to have her on the IEPA team”. 

It is worthy to note that IEPA was established in 1975 by UNESCO/UNDP/GoG with two clear mandates: Build and strengthen capacity of educational leaders in planning & administration and Inform educational policy planning and implementation through research.

In November 2020, IEPA officially became a UNESCO Category II Institute.

The elevation of IEPA to a UNESCO Category II status is part of the commitment of the West African governments to meet the international agenda for education especially in meeting the SDG 4 which seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”