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History is in the making as Ghana gets her first ever female vice president, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang.
She is a former Minister of Education and first female vice Chancellor of a public university who was the running mate of the President-elect, Former President John Dramani Mahama.
Her historic feat comes at a time that Ghana’s Parliament had passed the Affirmative Action and Gender Equity law assented by the President, a legal document to demand gender parity in Ghana.
Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang is a renowned Ghanaian academic, educator, and politician who began her career as a teacher and lecturer, rising through the ranks to become a Professor of Literature at the Cape-Coast University.
She was born November 22, 1951, in Cape Coast and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and French, University of Ghana, Master of Arts degree in English, University of York, UK and Ph.D in English Literature University of York.
She became Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Vice Dean of the faculty of Arts and head of department at the University of Cape-Coast before rising to the apex position as the first female vice Chancellor of the University
In 2013, Professor Opoku-Agyemang was appointed Minister of Education by President John Dramani Mahama, a position she held until 2017.
During her tenure, she implemented various reforms aimed at improving education in Ghana, including Introduction of the Progressive Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, Expansion of the School Feeding Programme, and Establishment of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
Prior to the 2020 General elections, Prof Opoku-Agyeman was chosen by former President John Dramani Mahama, as his running mate and she ably supported the NDC campaign, even though the NDC lost to the NPP’s President Akufo-Addo.
Throughout her career, Professor Opoku-Agyemang has received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to education, literature, and public service and notable amongst them was the Order of the Volta (Companion) in 2008, Fellowship of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011 and Ghana Women of Excellence Award in 2017.
The vice-president-elect is married with three children, a Christian and a member of the Methodist Church.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang has published numerous research papers and books on literature, education, and women’s studies. Some of her notable publications include ‘The Politics of Female Representation in African Literature” (2004) and “Women’s Voices in Ghanaian Literature” (2010).
By Bertha Badu-Agyei, GNA
