Richard Dzikunu

Biography

This is the story of a young man who has defied the odds, braved the storms and has earned his place at the table of greats. He could easily be referred to as a master strategist; one who turns every challenge into an opportunity and uses it as a springboard to excellence. Today, he conveniently passes as one of Africa’s finest young leaders who are on a mission to open a new chapter and tell a different but better story about the continent to the world. And his name is Richard Dzikunu. Richard is a journalist specialized in development communication, primarily concerned with open development, transparency and accountability. He is also part of “Accountability Advocates”, a group of 20 young experts from youth – led community – based organizations in Africa and Europe which aims to design and implement a national monitoring framework to hold governments accountable in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. HIGH SCHOOL Richard in his high school days at St. Martin Senior High School always had the zeal and passion for journalism. He also demonstrated a great deal of leadership traits at such an early stage in his education and life. It therefore came as little surprise when he became the head Boys’ Prefect at St. Martin Senior High. CURIOUS MINDS He is a member of “Curious Minds Ghana” and the host of the youth radio show “Gems of our time. At curious minds he built his capacity to become a youth advocate and additionally gained admission to further his education at the Ghana Institute of Journalism where he graduated with first class honors in communication. TERTIARY EDUCATION (G.I.J) Despite being in and out of the classroom due to mainly advocacy work, he managed to still balance this with his academic work and came out with flying colours always. As a studious student, Richard won for himself a scholarship from the Lebanese community and was able to maintain the sponsorship till his final year in the school. BEYOND GHANAIAN BORDERS Amidst all the responsibilities that came with both school work and advocacy programmes, he remained focused. His hardwork was rewarded when the school nominated him as one of the two students who were being selected to represent the school at the Metropolitan University of Applied Sciences in Finland for an exchange program. There, he gained a certificate in film and Television and culture. While in Finland, he was honored to interview Alexander Stubb, a former Prime Minister of Finland. Through his youth advocacy programs, he has represented Ghana in many international conferences such as the United Nations Conference.

Research Interest

Journalism, Social media.