Gratitude, Discipline and Integrity Are Ghana’s Natural Resources – Oil Entrepreneur Beatrice Jones-Mensah Tayui Tells Youth At U.S. Embassy Ghana

US-Ghana business leader and oil and gas entrepreneur, Ms. Beatrice Jones-Mensah Tayui, has urged Ghanaians, especially the youth, to return to the core values of gratitude, discipline, integrity and kindness, describing Ghanaians’ hospitality as a natural resource.

Ms. Tayui was speaking at the American Spaces event *”U.S.-Ghana@70: Think Bigger, Go Further: A Leadership Journey Across Continents”* held at the US Embassy Ghana on 14th October 2026.

Sharing her journey from a teenager leaving Ghana for Chicago to becoming owner of oil and gas exploration businesses, Ms. Tayui said her experience in the US raised her level of gratitude.

“Raised my level of gratitude because, for one thing, we took so much for granted. To this day, we still take a lot for granted. The fact that you can turn your lights on and it goes on, and you’ve got clean water,” she said.

She recounted visiting villages in Ghana while supporting her brother’s campaign and seeing children who still have to cross streams to go to school, saying such moments should be teaching and gratitude moments, not criticism.

Reflecting on her student days in Chicago, she said she made it a mission to have straight A’s after learning about academic scholarships at the financial aid office, to avoid putting her parents through tuition worries.

“I made it my mission to have straight A’s… This is part of my gratitude to my parents for having sent me here,” she said, adding that she had to constantly ask herself, “What do I offer America?”

Ms. Tayui said she intentionally immersed herself in American society through community service and building diverse networks, noting that when people come to her home, “it looks like United Nations” because it is about celebrating people and cultures.

She said values of hard work, being a good citizen, good neighbour, humility and kindness were pillars taught at home that must be represented wherever one finds themselves.

According to her, moving from Ghana to the US as a teenager was humbling, navigating a new culture while holding on to discipline and values from home.

“You just feel so small… But it was humbling to know that you’re coming into a culture that you truly know nothing about, but you also have something that you’re contributing, which is the discipline that you brought with you,” she said.

Comparing Ghana then and now, and America then and now, Ms. Tayui said there is a shift in values. She observed that society has become more selfish as opposed to selfless, with less sense of being one’s brother’s keeper.

She expressed concern that social media is influencing young people to copy lifestyles that do not represent Ghanaian culture.

“No one can tell me anything… You don’t know if that someone on social media is off their meds. You don’t know if they’re telling you the truth,” she cautioned.

She lamented that Ghana has lost some sense of value and integrity, where how one presented oneself with dignity used to matter more than who has the biggest car or house.

“Ghanaians as a people are one of the most hospitable, and I’ve worked through the west coast of Africa… I think there’s just something about us that’s very congenial, and that truly is a natural resource,” she added.

Ms. Tayui has owned and operated oil and gas exploration and production services businesses under the Cybele name since 2011, initially focusing on West Africa, and later founded Cybele Engineering Ltd., which was awarded the operating license for Block S7 in Guyana’s historic oil and gas fields.

Before founding Cybele, she held leadership positions at leading pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Hoffmann-La Roche, and Johnson & Johnson. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics and Business Administration from Roosevelt University in Illinois and splits her time between Chicago and Ghana.

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