Meet Yvonne — New GhIS President

Saturday, April 24, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 3)

By Rebecca Kwei
In times past when the surveying profession was mentioned, it was certainly associated with men.
But that is changing now, as more women are taking to what is a largely a male-dominated field.
One of such women is Surveyor Yvonne Odoley Sowah, who has risen through the ranks of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS) to become the second female President in the 41-year history of the institute.
She was co-opted into the Divisional Committee of the institution in 1990, then elected on to the Valuation and Estate Surveying Divisional Committee and became the Honorary Secretary of the institution for two terms from 1993 to 1995 and subsequently the Chairperson of the Valuation and Estate Surveying Division for an unprecedented four- term period (2003-2007).
After all that, Ms Sowah became the Vice-President of the GhIS (2008-2009), the Senior Vice-President for 2009-2010 and now the President for the 2010-2011 session.
She sees her election as a humbling experience and of mixed emotions, saying, “Although I expected it to happen, when it happened it was surreal and I had mixed feelings.”
The first woman to head the institution was Surveyor Dr Mrs Matilda Fiadzigbey, a former Administrator at the Office of the Administration of Stool Lands.
Ms Sowah, who was sworn in on February 27, 2010, will serve as President for a one-year term. She took over from Surveyor Kwadwo Osei-Asante
“I originally wanted to read Law but with a quirk of fate I ended up at the University of Science and Technology (now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to read Land Economy and I have not regretted,” she told The Mirror in an interview.
She said during her time in the university, there were only two females reading Land Economy, noting that the situation was changing, and although she could not give figures, she said many more women were majoring in that field.
Having been elected as President of the institution, Ms Sowah, who is a Valuation Surveyor and Managing Director of Alpha Property Services Limited, has a tall order which she hopes will make the institution be seen and heard.
“For a long time surveyors in general have been ‘after thoughts’ in the development planning agenda of the country and it is about time that changed because surveyors are very relevant — anything to do with land, sea or air,” she emphasised.
To do that, Ms Sowah said the first thing was to strengthen the secretariat to help deliver quality service to members of the institution so that decisions of the Governing Council were disseminated to all promptly.
Also, it is her desire to ensure that members appreciate the benefits of the institution so that together they can help the institution grow in stature for members’ views to be sought in all matters of national development.
Research is designed to solve a particular existing problem and it is also vital to our everyday decision-making.
So for her, an effective research unit for the institution to help in the provision of effective indices and data for all the services provided by the three divisions of the institution, namely, Quantity Surveying, Land Surveying and Valuation and Estate.
For instance, she said she expected the Valuation and Estate Division to ensure that the valuation format was utilised for the development of a database of information relevant for the mortgage banks, banks in general, the Statistical Service and the Bank of Ghana for establishing housing indices.
“The Quantity Surveying Division is to develop a cost data on construction cost to help the government ascertain whether housing developments are really affordable or not and come up with ways of reducing construction costs,” she explained.
Ms Sowah is also worried about the infiltration of people into the profession.
“Anybody gets up and says ‘I’m a surveyor’ and starts practising. We need to regulate the surveying practice and also set up a place where people can go for redress,” she said.
In pursuance of this, she said the promulgation of the Survey Council and the Real Estate Agency bills which would help sanitise the surveying practice and had taken nearly a decade to be passed would be followed up.
Ms Sowah is the eldest daughter of the late Mr Justice E. N. P. Sowah, a former Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Anglican Archdiocese of Accra, and Mrs Elsie Sowah.
She had her pre-school and primary education at the Ghana International School (GIS) and Achimota Primary.
She gained her GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels from Achimota School, Accra High School and OLA Secondary School, Ho, between 1965 and 1974. She graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Land Economy from KNUST in 1978.
After her university education, Ms Sowah had her national service at the Estate Department of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) from 1978 to 1979.
She left for Nigeria after her national service and worked with a chartered surveying firm — Epega & Co — as a valuer for six years.
She returned to her motherland in the latter part of 1986 and for two and a half years worked with Property Investments Consultants.
In 1989, together with Edward Dwomoh Appiah as senior partner, she set up Alpha Property Services, of which she was a managing partner till 2007 when it became a limited liability company. Now Alpha Property Services is a wholly female owned company. Her other partner is Mrs Ellen Arthur.
According to Ms Sowah, it had not been easy operating in a male-dominated field, adding, “Being female, you have to go the extra mile so that your male colleagues do not find any fault with your work. But over the years, I have carved a niche in the estate agency field and that has helped me.”
Ms Sowah is blessed with three boys — Paa Kow, who is working in Canada; Desmond, a student at KNUST, and David, who is in 11th Grade.