Election 2016: Know your female parliamentary candidates (3)
They are women who have resolved to serve their country by becoming law-makers in Parliament and we want you, our dear readers, to become familiar with all of them through weekly features.
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We hope the information we put out about them would, in some way, help voters make up their minds about the people they want to represent them in Parliament.
Mrs Catherine Afeku
NPP parliamentary candidate, Evalue-Jomoro-Gwira Constituency
Mrs Catherine Afeku is a former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Evalue-Jomoro-Gwira Constituency who is working hard to snatch her seat and return to Parliament.
Although she is not the incumbent, the constituents still have a special place for her as they describe her as someone whose attractiveness cuts across political lines due to her jovial approach to issues and her readiness to listen to everybody irrespective of political affiliation.
Mrs Afeku said she was pushed into politics by passion to serve her own people, after returning home to realise that many of the solutions needed in her constituency could largely be solved through self-help initiatives.
Mrs Afeku, who speaks flawless Swahili, French and Spanish, was acting as a Master of Ceremony (MC) in Atlanta when she was spotted by Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey and Mrs Oboshie Sai Coffie who were both former executives of the New Patriotic Party.
“After the programme, Mrs Coffie approached me and asked, my sister where in Ghana are you from, and I said I am an Nzema and she asked what I was doing abroad.”
“I looked at her and said mum, I am married and work for corporate America, however, I regularly visit home and contribute to my community. She looked at me amazingly and said no, this is not home,” she recalled.
After this encounter, she entered the political scene under President Kufuor’s era as the Government Spokesperson for Infrastructure.
This marked the beginning of her return and she contested the seat for the area and won to enter into Parliament for the first time.
She said her chance of recapturing her seat in the 2016 election is certain. “I have demonstrated to my constituents that I came to serve them but not for my personal gain”.
Mrs Afeku said she had always been in touch with them and also ensured that every single community in the constituency had one need or the other addressed.
“Even in opposition, I ensured the projects I started before losing were completed and new ones initiated,” she added.
Before she lost, her next line of action after the completion of various projects was to ensure that the region became a tourism and fisheries hub as well as agriculture processing zone.
“Such moves would lead to my dream of job creation and put my constituency more prominently on the world map,” she noted.
Mrs Afeku comes from Axim in the Western Region and is married to her childhood sweetheart, Mr Seth Afeku, with who she has three children.
“My oldest son, Kevin Afeku, 23, is a medical student in Atlanta, Todd Afeku is a second-year engineering student and Jason Afeku who is currently schooling in Ghana is in junior high”.
She was also the only female member of ECOWAS Parliament of West Africa during her time as MP.
Mrs Ama Pomaa Boateng Andoh
NPP Parliamentary candidate, Juaben Constituency, Ashanti Region
Her decision to contest at the primaries in 2011 came as a surprise to people who knew her because she is not the typical loud and aggressive type of person — a trait sometimes associated with politicians.
Mrs Ama Pomaa Andoh had been active in women entrepreneurial activities in Ghana and at the international level but it was her first time venturing into mainstream politics.
“At the initial stages, I was a bit reluctant because I didn’t see it as a field that I would want to venture in, but with some encouragement from some friends, I decided to give it a shot and though I was the last person to pick the nomination form and only had about two weeks to campaign, I pulled a surprise and won the primaries,” she said.
She says entering Parliament is her main vision as she will make her constituency very comfortable and attractive so that the youth, especially, will not move to urban areas in search of greener pastures.
For this reason, her main focus has been on education, youth empowerment and agriculture.
“Fortunately for me, there is a high school in California that is ready to partner with a model school we are working on as well as the Juaben Senior High School.
“We have also received license from Cisco Systems, one of the leading networking company in the world, and with that license, we have set up an academy in the Juaben Senior High School and a different one in the community.
“Currently, we are training teachers who will handle the centres after which the facilities can be opened for use. I believe education and ICT is the surest way to transform the lives of our people,” she said.
Mrs Andoh explained that under agriculture, her foundation had been able to secure a processing plant for the orange farmers in the community.
Touching on the November 7 election, she said in the last elections, although her party won the seat, the margin was not as huge as the previous years.
Her aim therefore is to make the seat safer by widening the gap between her and her opponents and securing more votes for her presidential candidate.
Mrs Andoh had her Ordinary and Advanced level education at the Holy Child School in Cape Coast before moving to the United Kingdom where she took different courses in Information Technology (IT) at the Westminster University.
Currently she is pursuing a Master’s Degree course in Information Systems specialising in Mobile Systems.
Madam Dela Sowah, MP For Kpando Constituency
Madam Dela Sowah is the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the Kpando Constituency who has been given the nod by her constituents to contest the parliamentary seat for the second time.
She is a woman with rich experience and has served in various capacities in respect of Research and Marketing.
Madam Sowah was a founding member and the first executive secretary for the Advertising Association of Ghana and a marketing consultant for the Internal Revenue Service in 1987.
She was a brand consultant for Mobil Oil from 1996 to 2000 and market development provider for Microsoft in Ghana between 1997and 2000.
In addition, she served as a consultant on behavioural change for Future Group International of USA/GSMF from 1992 to 1997.
Madam Sowah hails from Kpando and was born on November 23, 1959. She attended Mawuli School after elementary education at Kpando. She proceeded to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) where she was awarded a Bachelor degree in Social Science.
She attended a training programme on social marketing sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1993 and served on boards of governmental and non-governmental organisations including the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA), National Media Commission and Hebron High School.
From 2001 to date she has been working with Speedmasters and undertakes market analysis and generated options and also proposes winning strategies for clients to achieve their goals.
Her key strength is to use research findings to plan every aspect of her work in order to make tangible and measurable impact.
Madam Sowah had been the Chief Executive Officer for Dapeg International from 1987-2005 and was responsible for running offices she created in Zambia, Nigeria and Cote d’ Ivoire and also served as a researcher for Essor Research from 1986 to 1987.
Madam Sowah is currently the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection and she is married with children.
Ms Helen Adjoa Ntoso, Krachi East Constituency
A professional teacher, Ms Helen Adjoa Ntoso is the current Volta Regional Minister and has been actively involved in the activities of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from its formative stages.
She has served in various capacities as a senior official of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and as a Member of Parliament for Krachi East Constituency. It is no wonder she is now the political head of the Volta Region.
Ms Ntoso has chalked several feats for promoting peace in human endeavour and been awarded for those feats.
These include the Global Women Leaders Hall of Fame Award in Dubai, Africa Female Peace Champion award, 2015 and the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus in America in honour of outstanding women leaders and pacesetters from South America, Africa Middle East and Asia.
Ms Ntoso started her basic education at the Osramani Primary and Middle Schools and continued at the Krachi Senior High School. She trained as a teacher at the St Francis Teacher’s Training College from 1979 to 1982.
Her passion is to make a difference for a transformational leadership derived from rich experiences meant to improve the physical and spiritual well-being of the people.
She has a passion for championing peace, helping the needy, bringing harmony to groups in the midst of conflict and has exceptional leadership skills.
Born in Kete Krachi in 1959, the professional teacher has been a missionary, child care professional, a politician, and a peace ambassador.
She holds a Master of Arts degree in Conflict Peace and Security Management from the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra.
Ms Ntoso has made significant changes as MP in her constituency and as a regional minister.
She went unopposed in the NDC primaries.
