President Akufo-Addo during his presentation argued that his cabinet is made up of 30 percent women reiterating his commitment to promoting gender-equality in Ghana.

iWatch Africa checks revealed that out of his nineteen (19) Cabinet Ministers, only five (5) of them are women, which represents 26% of Cabinet, and not 30% as the president claimed.

The president also said he is yet to see “enough dynamism” in gender activism by Ghanaian women, a comment which received some heavy backlash from activists all over the world.

“We are not seeing enough dynamism and activism on the part of those who are seeking. I am talking about dynamism where it matters…electing people to parliament, controlling political parties because they are the instruments by which our societies make decisions.

“We are talking about decisions, not wishes and hopes, we are talking about decisions that are going to make the difference,” the President said.

The comments attracted heavy criticisms from some leading activists in Ghana despite the open challenge that was given the president by Dr Alaa Murabit, the UN’s High Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth at the conference.

A prominent gender activist and former Gender Minister, Oye Lithur said the President’s comments “made her cry” as a Ghanaian woman.

Read Also: Nearly 40% of the world’s girls and women live in countries failing on gender equality

“President Akufo-Addo made me cry, I cried when I watched the video. To have a human rights lawyer speak and address gender issues in the way he addressed, very regrettable. He couldn’t even get his data right. Even the representation of women in his cabinet, he couldn’t get that right,” she stated.

Below is a list of Akufo-Addo’s Cabinet Ministers (Source: Ministry of Information)

M/F	Portfolio	Incumbent	Term
	Ministry of Trade and Industry	Alan Kyeremanten	2017 –
	Ministry of Finance	Ken Ofori-Atta	2017 –
	Ministry of Defence	Dominic Nitiwul	2017 –
	Ministry of The Interior	Ambrose Dery	2017 –
	Ministry of Energy	Mr John-Peter Amewu	2018 –
F	Office of Attorney General and Ministry of Justice	Gloria Akuffo	2017 –
F	Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Shirley Ayorkor Botchway	2017 –
	Ministry of Food and Agriculture	Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto	2017 –
	Ministry of Education	Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh	2017 –
	Ministry of Health	Kwaku Agyemang-Manu	2017 –
	Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation	Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei	2017 –
	Ministry of Regional Reorganization and Development	Dan Kweku Botwe	2017 –
	Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources	Kweku Asomah Cheremeh	2018 –
	Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources	Joseph Kofi Adda	2017 –
	Ministry of Railway Development	Joe Ghartey	2017 –
	Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations	Ignatius Bafuor Awuah	2017 –
	Ministry of Transport	Kweku Ofori Asiamah	2017 –
F	Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture	Barbara Oteng Gyasi	2019 –
F	Ministry of Special Development Initiative	Mavis Hawa Koomson	2017 –
F	Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (Ghana)	Elizabeth Afoley Quaye	2017 –

By Gideon Sarpong | Follow @gideonsarpong | iWatch Africa

The post Fact-check: President Akufo-Addo’s claim that women make up 30 percent of his cabinet is false appeared first on iWatch Africa.