Profile of Kojo Yankah
Kojo Acquah Yankah is a former Member of Parliament, former Minister of State, journalist, author, cultural activist, communication specialist and scholar.
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He is founder of the African University College of Communications (AUCC) and the Pan African Heritage Museum.
He is an author of several books.
Profile
Kojo Acquah Yankah was born on August 16, 1945 at Agona Duakwa in the Agona East District of the Central Region of Ghana.
His had his primary education in various schools in the region.
He then attended Adisadel College for his secondary education, also in the Central Region.
Yankah then taught for a few years before proceeding to the University of Ghana (UG) where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Honours degree in English.
After graduation, Yankah went back to teach at his alma mater, Adisadel College for two years.
He also worked with various government institutions, including the Information Services Department and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust.
After the Provisional National Defence Council military government came to power in 1982, Kojo Yankah was appointed Editor of the government-owned, Daily Graphic, the country’s largest, most authoritative and highest circulation newspaper.
Yankah stood for elections as MP and won the seat for Agona East constituency in the 1992 Ghanaian parliamentary election on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ticket, with the return to party politics in Ghana.
He retained the seat in the 1996 election to have a second term with 13,336 votes out of the 24,652 valid votes cast, representing 43.40 per cent over his opponents:
Yeboah Alex Duodo, an NPP member who polled 8,605 votes, Kweku James Mensah, an NCP member who polled 1,843 votes, Kofi Owusu, a CPP member who polled 470 votes, Martin Kobina Nkum, an NPP member who polled 389 votes and Kojo A. Yankah, an NPP member who also polled 0 votes.
Yankah was first appointed Central Regional Minister during the second term of the Rawlings government.
Yankah was later appointed as Ashanti Regional Minister, a position he held for only 11 months before he was moved to the National Development Planning Commission as a Minister of State.
He was later appointed Director of the Ghana Institute of Journalism. In 2001, he established the Africa Institute of Journalism and Communications which later became the African University College of Communications (AUCC).
It is affiliated to the University of Ghana with accreditation from the National Accreditation Board in March 2004.