Abraham Attah’s popularity earned him Free SHS Ambassadorship – Minister

The young Ghanaian actor Abraham Attah was chosen as an ambassador for the government’s Free Senior High School (SHS) because of his fame.

This was revealed by the Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh.

Speaking to journalists after a short ceremony to unveil Abraham Attah for the role on Thursday, June 22, 2017, he said: “We chose him because he is popular and has achieved a lot in what he does.”

He was also thankful to Abraham Attah for accepting the role.

“If I look around and today I see my younger brother who has attained much fame than myself, who has decided to support the government in this way, I can only say thank you.”

“You are a mentor to a lot of people. You have achieved what only a few people would achieve at your age and we only pray that God blesses you to be a beacon for this country and to support us,” the Minister added.

When quizzed on Abraham Attah’s role as ambassador for the programme, Dr Opoku Prempeh said “he will do what ambassadors do. He will talk about Free SHS.”

The Free SHS is a flagship policy program of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Many people have said that this policy helped it win power in the December 2016 polls.

The party popularised the intended program in the run up to the 2012 elections, but could not win power then to implement it.

After winning the 2016 election, the NPP announced that it will fully roll out the program this year.

President Akufo-Addo, in an address at Okuapeman School in the Eastern Region in February 2017, announced that the program will commence from September 2017.

“By free SHS, we mean that, in addition to tuition which is already free, there will be no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding, and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free,” Akufo-Addo said.

The 15-year-old Ghanaian actor made his feature film debut in the acclaimed movie Beasts of No Nation (2015).

He played the film’s lead role, a child soldier named Agu, and that performance earned him a string of awards, most notable of which were the Marcello Mastroianni Best Young Actor Award at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, as well as the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

He currently resides in the USA, where he schools alongside his work as an actor. He recently starred in the big budget ‘Spiderman Homecoming’ movie, and also made headlines by recording a 4.0 GPA at the end of his first year.