President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the University of Ghana’s tradition of male Vice-Chancellors had been broken with Professor Appiah Amfo as the University’s new and female Vice-Chancellor.
The Council of the University, led by its Chancellor, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, on October 20 2021, appointed Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo as the new Vice-Chancellor of the University.
President Akufo-Addo said that with the appointment of a female Vice-Chancellor and the female Chancellor of the UG, males in the University’s academic hierarchy might feel threatened spices.
Speaking at the historic inauguration of a female Vice-Chancellor of the University, President Akufo-Addo said, “I believe they (men) have no cause to worry. It just happens to be the time of the women.
President Akufo-Addo said from the founding year of the UG in 1948, 73 years ago, the University has had successions of principals and Vice Chancellors of varying degrees who had all been males.
“That tradition has fortunately been broken. The premier University, the University of Ghana, Legon, has as of now a new Vice-Chancellor who is female.”
President Akufo-Addo said Ghana was undergoing significant reforms in her educational system — significantly broadening access to education at all levels of the country’s educational structure.
He said the country needed to mobilise all talents and resources “without discrimination or reserve to make a decisive push for the socio-economic transformation “which we all seek for our beloved nation, Ghana.”
President Akufo-Addo said those who have had the privilege of leadership in the country’s educational structure had had unprecedented challenges before them.
Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, a 2009 African Humanities Programme Postdoctoral Fellow and the Chair of the Steering Committee of the African Humanities Association, was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, effective October 26, 2021.
On Monday, July 26, 2021, she was sworn in by the University Council to act as Vice-Chancellor until a substantive appointment was made. Her appointment took effect from August 1, 2021.
Prof. Amfo took over from Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, whose term ended on July 31, 2021.
Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor responsible for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Ghana. She is an experienced academic and University administrator with close to twenty years of experience in higher education.
Before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor (ASA) in November 2019, Professor Amfo was founding Dean of the School of Languages (2014 – 2019). She previously served as the Head of the Department of Linguistics (2013 – 2014). She has participated in the governance of the University through her service on several statutory and ad hoc boards and committees.
Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo’s MPhil (2001) and PhD (2007) degrees in Linguistics are from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. She holds a bachelor’s degree (French and Linguistics) from the University of Ghana. Professor Amfo has a post-graduate degree in Administration and Management from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), education in management and leadership training from Harvard Business School, University of Applied Sciences, Germany INSEAD, France. She is a past student of Holy Child School (O’Level) and Archbishop Porter’s Girls Secondary School (A’Level).
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD