Elizabeth Ohene Appointed SSNIT Board Chair

Celebrated journalist, writer and media owner Elizabeth Ohene will become the new board chairperson of the state trust Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

Madam Ohene’s appointment by President Nana Akufo-Addo makes the 76-year-old former reporter for the BBC the first woman to head the board of directors at SSNIT. She will replace Dr Kwame Addo Kufour who himself took over from Prof. Joshua Alabi, between 2017 and 2020.

Apart from her private media consultancy and businesses, the new SSNIT board chair is also a gifted regular op-ed contributor to the Daily Graphic and has also written speeches for the current president.

Elizabeth Ohene’s profile

Miss Elizabeth Akua Ohene was born on 24th January 1945, and attended Mawuli School at Ho, between 1958 and 1964.

She gained admission to the University of Ghana in 1964 and graduated with B. A. (Hon) English in 1967.

The former Minister of State, also attended the University of Indiana, Bloomington, Ind. U.S.A. where she obtained a Mass Communication Certificate. The US State Department-sponsored her to undertake a course involving travel around the USA and also has work experience from newspapers in three States in 1971.

She was a Press Fellow from January to June 1983 at Wolfson College, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Miss Elizabeth Ohene’s professional experience between 1967 and 1982 in Graphic Corporation saw her as a Reporter, Staff Writer, Columnist, Lead Writer and Acting Editor of the Daily Graphic and Mirror.

She also had the opportunity to serve as a Member of a Board of Directors of the Corporation.

In 1986, she solely founded the Talking Drum Publications and until 1986, she was the Publisher/Editor of the publications, a weekly news magazine on West African Affairs. She also worked for BBC World Service, London, UK.

Madam Ohene had worked with the BBC as a Producer of Radio Programmes, then successively became a Presenter, Senior Producer on World Service and British Domestic Radio, Researcher and Columnist on the Focus on Africa Magazine and Deputy Editor in the African Service for English Daily Programmes, and in charge of the operational budget.

Miss Elizabeth Ohene also edited the award-winning Focus on Africa Programme. She also reported regularly for the BBC from various parts of Africa and was the resident correspondent in South Africa from 1993 to 1994 during the transition from apartheid to the first democratic elections.

The former Minister has conducted a lot of training programmes for journalists for the BBC in South Africa, Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

She also ran a network of more than 150 stringers located in all parts of Africa for the BBC Africa Service, and also supervised their editorial work and kept their equipment and training updated.

Miss Ohene’s professional activities include being a member of the International Women Media Foundation, which actively promotes women’s competency and leadership in the media. The foundation has established an Africa Women’s Media Centre in Dakar, Senegal, where courses are run for African women in the Media according to their needs.

To date, the Minister has been a Board member of the International Commission of Investigative Journalists, which coordinates major investigations of stories around the world. Since 1997, she has served as a Member of the CNN Africa Journalist of the Year Competition.