Ghana's President Akuffo Addo says Ghana will have a female president soon

According to him, aside from the appointment of more women into many and critical positions in his administration and offices of state, Ghana was working to ensure that very soon half of all appointments in the country would be given to women.

President Akufo-Addo made the revelation while answering questions from some Guyanese, Africans and people of African ancestry at a durbar held for Ghana’s delegation at Georgetown, the capital of Guyana.

He said his Cabinet had 26 per cent women, with 19 percent of Members of Parliament being women.

Beyond that, he said, there were very critical offices of state which were being occupied by women in his tenure, including the Office of Chief Justice.

President Akufo-Addo further noted that other appointments he had made in his administration for women into very critical and sensitive positions included the Chief of Staff, the minister of Communications, Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Justice and Attorney General, Local Government, Fisheries and Aquaculture and Sanitation and Water Resources.

Background

Recently, Ghanaian feminists on social media expressed shock over President Akufo-Addo’s comment at the Women Deliver Conference at Vancouver in Canada.

Speaking on a panel at the conference, Nana Akufo-Addo noted that “not enough movement is being made by the 52% of the Ghanaian population that are women to be able to be in the position to make these decisions,” adding that, that even though 30% of his cabinet are women, they are not seeing enough dynamism and activism from the women.

This left many Ghanaian feminists wondering if the president had not seen all of the efforts they put into activism on many platforms which include social media.

But the President said his comment was misinterpreted because he didn’t mean Ghanaian women are not doing well with what they do.

He then said he is convinced Ghana will soon have a female president.