Miss Elizabeth Akua Ohene was born 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 Minister of State, also attended University of Indiana, Bloomington, Ind. U. S.A. where she obtained Mass Communication Certificate. The US State Department sponsored her to undertake a course involving travel around the USA and had also work experience from newspapers in three States in 1971. She was a Press Fellow from January to June, 1983 at Wolfswon College, 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, Leader 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.
The Minister 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 African 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 of 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 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 needs 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 International Commission of Investigative Journalists which coordinates major investigations of stories around the world. Since 1997, she has served as a Member of CNN Africa Journalist of the Year Competition.
Until the appointment as the Minister of state, Miss Elizabeth Ohene was the government spokesperson in President Kufuor’s Administration.