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Meet Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Ghana’s affable new Information Minister

After the late multiple-awards winner Komla Dumor left Joy FM for Bush House, London in 2006 to work for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a huge void was created.

And one of the appointees that got an elevation was the Deputy Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.

Akufo-Addo replaced his trusted aide Mustapha Hamid with Oppong Nkrumah as the Information Minister. And for many who have keenly followed the career of the broadcast journalist turned politician, it’s not surprising.

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Up stepped Kojo Oppong Nkrumah. Then unknown in the Ghanaian media scene, Kojo sat in for the ‘Boss Player’ with perfection.

Nkrumah joined the Kokomlemle based Joy FM from British American Tobacco the same year Komla Dumor exited. Undaunted by the huge shoes he had to fill, the soft spoken Oppong Nkrumah made the Joy Super Morning Show his.

Kojo kept Accra glued to the dial 99.7 every morning till he bowed out of Joy FM in 2014 to pursue other interests.

Graduating with an MBA in Marketing from the University of Ghana in 2012, he topped it up by obtaining a LLB from the GIMPA School of Law in 2014.

While away from the consul at Joy, Kojo joined a private equity firm, West Brownstone Capital while juggling it with his studies.

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As envisaged by many due to his eloquence, Oppong Nkrumah finally announced that he will be contesting as a Member of Parliament on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for Ofoase-Ayirebi Constituency in the Eastern Region in 2015.

Kojo was called to the Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court in 2016 and he joined Kulendi, Attafuah and Amponsah @ Law.

During the 2016 general elections, Oppong Nkrumah won the Ofoase-Ayirebi seat with a majority to gain entry into the Ghanaian Parliament.

Despite him being a rookie in the law making house, he has been impactful and serves on the Finance and Constitutional Committees in Parliament.

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His elevation to Minister of Information has been greeted with a lot of optimism by many political pundits. His suave, poise, and calm nature is best suited for such a sensitive position in government; many of his backers have said.

Outgoing Minsiter Mustapha Hamid had this to say about his successor, "I, with the acceptance of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made Kojo Oppong Nkrumah my deputy. The President was gracious to me, when he asked me to be minister for Information, he was gracious to me by saying, I want you to nominate somebody who shall be your deputy, and I said to him that, I want Kojo, first of all because, I had developed a relationship with Kojo over the years, I trusted his expertise in this area and experience and when I suggested it to the President, the President said you have it."

"So quite frankly, of the three deputies, he is the only one that I personally had a hand in choosing, I personally brought to the place and Kojo knows that. He just told me a week ago that my brother, I think that this time, it is time for you to make the public know, because people say all sorts of things in the public space, that they don't know what they are talking about, so I brought him, and I have absolute confidence in him”, he added.

Though this new position will be the most daunting in the young career of Oppong Nkrumah, the overwhelming acceptance of his nomination proves one thing: that he is very competent to handle it well.

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