Herbert Amponsah Mensah (born in Kumawu on 26 December.) is a Ghanaian businessman, sports administrator, and the President of World Rugby’s African association, Rugby Africa, the governing body of Rugby in Africa. He was also the presidentMyjoyonline. "Herbert Mensah elected as new Ghana Rugby President", Joy FM (Ghana), Accra, 5 June 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2015. of the Ghana Rugby AssociationWorld Rugby. "World Rugby Union Members - Ghana", Online. Retrieved 2 April 2015. (GRA) operating as the Ghana Rugby Football Union (GRFU).
Education and entry into business Mensah is an alumnus of Achimota Secondary School in Accra, Ghana, although he completed his O levels in the UK and later obtained his graduate degree in economics at Sussex University. In his younger years, he played rugby for Sussex and Saracens. He entered the business world while still a student and gained business experience, among other places, in the tobacco industry in Zimbabwe. His entrepreneurship led to his pursuit of success in the telecommunications industry. In the early nineties, he identified cellphones as a boom industry and went on to become the biggest mobile handset distributor in sub-Saharan Africa, outside South Africa, where he led the market in distributing Motorola, Sony, Ericsson, and Nokia. By 2007, he had established a level-3 Motorola and Nokia-certified mobile phone and repair centre in Accra.
In 1994, he identified the opportunity of South African pay-TV broadcaster M-Net and helped to spread this service to the rest of Africa. In 1995, he represented the BBC in Ghana and became the liaison with media and government regarding all aspects of radio, programming, marketing, and PR. He later became the country manager for satellite-TV service MultiChoice to Ghana.
Land Rover discovery tour of West Africa In 1996 Herbert Mensah fixed the Land Rover rugby discovery tour of west Africa that included Ghana and Ivory Coast. The rugby tour was sponsored by Land Rover and meant to raise charity funds for Max Brito, an Ivorian rugby national team player who got paralysed during a 1995 rugby union World Cup game in South Africa between Ivory Coast and Tonga.
The tour was dubbed 'The last amateur tour'. the idea of the tour was originated in 1995 during the rugby World Cup by an England rugby union footballer Harvey Thorneycroft who led a group of amateur English rugby union footballers growing to become professionals and they collaborated with the South African Rugby team, for this tour to west Africa to play in Ghana and Ivory Coast and teach little kids in those countries the basics of the rugby game whiles raising funds to support Max Brito.
Though the idea was brilliant, the tour team needed a man on the ground in West Africa who had the wherewithal to fix the practical difficulties in organising such a tour in West Africa.
When he was contacted, Herbert Mensah facilitated travel arrangements for all the players from England and South Africa. Mensah also got Ghanaian international footballers playing in the English league at the time such as Tony Yeboah and others involved to raise massive local interest in the charity games. He also got local sponsorship including from the 5-star Labardi beach hotel involved in hosting the Max Brito tour. Other sponsors included airline companies operating in Ghana. Mensah, a former rugby union footballer himself guaranteed payment in case of damage or financial loss and accepted the risk for liability arising from such guarantee to the tour team, according to Harvey Thorneycroft.
With strong connection to President Jerry John Rawlings of Ghana in 1996, Mensah gained official recognition and participation for the 1996 rugby discovery tour in Ghana with President Rawlings attending and ordering military aircraft displays over the Accra stadium during the charity games which also involved soccer games with the national team the black stars.
Whiles in Ghana, Herbert Mensah got the touring rugby union footballers into the ''get into Ghanaian hospitality'' tour where the players applied themselves to teaching little Ghanaian kids how to play rugby football. The last amateur tour was the first and last of its kind in world rugby history.
Football Administration He was appointed board chairmanDaily Soccer Ghana. "Kwabena Yeboah tags Herbert Mensah as Kotoko's greatest leader ever" , Accra, 18 February 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015. of the popular Ghanaian football club Kumasi Asante Kotoko SC by the then Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, in 1999. Mensah set out to restore the success of earlier glories of the then failing club by implementing a five-year plan, which included sponsorships, the introduction of professional training facilities, and a transparent financial approach to the books. He left Kotoko in 2003 and later became involved in running a rival club in the Ashanti area, AshGold. In December 2004, Kotoko was runner-up in the African Cup Winners’ Cup and went on to achieve more success in the years that followed.
A well known sports journalist in Ghana, Kwabena Yeboah, described Herbert Mensah as "the greatest leader he has ever met at the Porcupine Warriors" due to his endeavours on and off the field.
Mensah has been credited with making a major contribution to changing the face of Ghanaian profession football. By 2004, he had established the SOS (Strategic Outsourcing Solutions) network. It provided management services to football and continues to be a link between grass-roots sport and the professional world.
In 2007, he teamed up with Prosport International to nurture players with exceptional talents.
Ghana Football Association Mensah has been critical of the Ghana football association and its leadership for the poor performance of Ghana's national soccer team. In 2022 he criticised the GFA and demanded an apology to Ghanaians after the team's abysmal performance at the 2022 AFCON in Cameroon. He also remains hopeful in the chances of the Ghana national football team qualifying for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Presidency of Ghana Rugby Prior to his appointment as President of Ghana Rugby, Mensah was appointed to the executive of the Greater Accra Rugby Association (GARA) in May 2014.Graphic Online."Build infrastructure to promote rugby — Herbert Mensah", Accra, 10 May 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2015. At the occasion, he stressed the importance to build infrastructure to motivate the youth and to grow the game of rugby in Ghana. On assuming office, his first priority was to order an assessment of the state of rugby in Ghana by his Board Members. He travelled to Dublin to meet with officials of World Rugby to seek guidance on the development of Rugby in Ghana.GhanaWeb. "President of Ghana Rugby meets with IRB" , Accra, 1 July 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015. The meeting was followed up with a meeting, also in Dublin, with the Rugby Africa Development Manager.Peace FM Online. "Ghana Rugby President Meets With IRB Africa Development Manager" , Accra, 29 September 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
He also met with various stakeholdersJoy Online. "Ghana Rugby to consult stakeholders as it finalises blueprint", Accra, 7 August 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015. including regional associations, clubs, playersPeace FM Online. "Ghana Rugby Players Association To Address Stakeholder Forum" , Accra, 25 August 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015. and the business community.Peace FM Online. "Rugby Stakeholders Embrace Changes In Ghana" , Accra, 18 August 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
On Friday, 29 August 2014, Mensah convened a Ghana Rugby Stakeholder Forum in Accra, where the Ghana Rugby Blueprint was presented.Peace FM Online. "Ghana Rugby Family Concludes Forum Successfully" , Accra, 3 September 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
He also arranged training sessions for both coachesGhanaWeb. "Herbert Mensah commends first rugby coaches training in Ghana" , Accra, 22 July 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015. and referees to improve the quality of the sport in Ghana. The coaches' training conducted by Mr David Dobelagsport. "Springbok Coach Happy with Camp". Retrieved 4 April 2015. of South Africa was described as a historical event for Ghana Rugby as it was the first time in 11 years that coaches were trained on both Level 1World Rugby. "Level 1 Coaching - Introducing Rugby” . Retrieved 4 April 2015. and Level 2World Rugby. "Level 2 - Developing Rugby Skills” , Retrieved 4 April 2015. for rugby union and SevensWorld Rugby. "Difference between Fifteens and Sevens" . Retrieved 4 April 2015. coaching.
Based on his consultations with both World Rugby and Rugby Africa, Mensah realised that a stumbling block in the way of Ghana Rugby to become a full member of World Rugby was the successful completion of a successfully run local league by at least ten clubs. He immediately mobilised his resources,Peace FM Online. "Ghana Rugby Clubs Meet With Board To Plot Local League” . Retrieved 4 April 2015. and planned and completedGhanaWeb. "Cosmos Buffaloes crowned 2014/2015 Champions of Ghana Rugby", Retrieved 4 April 2015. the first professionally run Ghana Rugby Club Championship (GRCC).
One of Mensah's major challenges as president of Ghana Rugby remains funding the sport and he has initiated various activities including a raffle ticket drive.Joy Online "Cuzzy Bro's to support Ghana Rugby development”, 25 September 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015. He also managed to get corporates such as Accra Brewery, Interplast Ghana, Vodafone Ghana and Zen Petroleum involved in supporting Ghana Rugby. In collaboration with the Vodafone Ghana management team he staged a management motivational event using the values and principles of rugby to help Vodafone prepare its management for year ahead.My Joy Online. " "Vodafone trains senior staff to succeed using management principles from Rugby", 20 March 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
He has challenged the Government of Ghana on more than one occasionCiti FM Online. "Politicians and media have failed Ghana – Herbert Mensah”, 8 December 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015.Citi Peace FM Online. "Herbert Mensah To Sue Ministry Over Whereabouts Of GHC100k Rugby Fund?" , 9 October 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015. about support promised to minority sports such as rugby that has never been delivered. He remains a vocal critic of other government failures well beyond the realm of sport.
After the 2015/16 Ghana Rugby Club Championship, Mensah, in the absence of a National Technical Director, appointed a four-man technical squad under his guidance to prepare the Ghana national men's sevens team for its Africa Rugby international commitment.My Joy Online. "Ghana Rugby announces National Men's Sevens Team", 17 May 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2016. The technical team consisting of Messrs. Simba Mangena (Head Coach of Conquerors SC), Clement Dennis (Player / Coach of Griffons RFC), Amuzuloh Salim (Head Coach of Cosmos Buffaloes RFC) and Dan Hoppe (Idas Sports RFC) put the squad of 25 players through a rigorous training programme that ended in April 2016. This was followed by Phase II of the preparation that started early May when a reduced squad of 16 players started camping in Accra.
The final squad of 12 players who competed in the Africa Rugby "Africa Cup West" men's sevens tournament in Lome, Togo on 28 May 2016 consisted of: Dan Hoppe (Idas Sports RFC), Clement Dennis (Griffons RFC), Sani Alhassan (Captain)(Cosmos Buffaloes RFC), Alex Dorpenyo (Conquerors SC), Seidu Razak (Conquerors SC), Solomon Akumba (Cosmos Buffaloes RFC), Michael Acquaye (Conquerors SC), Calestus Bosoka (Conquerors SC), Emmanuel Kalos (Conquerors SC), Joseph Mensah (Griffons RFC), Erick Acquah (Griffons RFC) and Nasiru Aminu (Conquerors SC).
The Ghana Eagles, as the Ghana national Rugby team is known, managed to lift the Bronze or Third Place cup after it was ranked as number one based on the Pool results.Modern Ghana. "Ghana Rugby Wins Bronze Cup In Togo", 29 May 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2016.