Prof. (Mrs.) Mavis Serwah Benneh Mensah is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and the founding Director (August, 2016 - July, 2020) of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development (CESED) at the School of Business, University of Cape Coast (UCC), Cape Coast, Ghana. She was the (Acting) Co-ordinator of the Entrepreneurship Education and Training Unit of CESED, from January, 2022 to July, 2023. In August 2023, the governing Council of UCC re-appointed Prof. Mensah to serve a three-year term as Director of CESED.
Pof. Mensah holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, an MBA in Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Development from the University of Leipzig, Germany, and a Diploma in SMEs Management and Development from the Galillee College in Israel. She is a Certified CEFE entrepreneurship trainer. She had her secondary education at Holy Child School, in Cape Coast, Ghana.
Prof. Mensah is an entrepreneurship curriculum development expert with 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship teaching, research and extension. She is a KAAD Scholar. Some of her research activities have been supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, now the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the Association of African Universities (AAU). She has initiated a number of entrepreneurship projects upon the precepts that entrepreneurship is key to economic development and lasting gains can be achieved through closer interactions among government, industry and academia.
Prof. Mensah promoted the establishment of the University of Cape Coast Business Incubator having garnered experiences from Germany, Israel and Uganda. She also initiated and spearheaded the organisation of the Cape Coast Entrepreneurship Stakeholders’ Forum and an Industry and Innovation Fair, in 2017 and 2019. In her capacity as a project team member of a tripartite collaboration among the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Nairobi (UoN), Kenya and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (BRSU), Germany, between 2012 and 2018, Prof. Mensah actively assisted in the organisation of an annual business plan competition between UCC and UoN which resulted in the founding of new student-led enterprises.
Prof. Mensah is a co-opted member of the Cape Coast Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She once served as the co-opted chairperson of the Collaboration Sub-Committee of the Ghana Research and Industry Collaborative (GRIC).
In her pastime, Prof. Mensah would treat herself to good music, take care of kids, or behold the wonders of creation through sight-seeing. She is married with four children.