Konor of Manya Krobo honours Vice President Prof. Opoku-Agyemang with Yokama award

The Konor of Manya Krobo and President of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, Nene Sakite II, has honoured Vice President Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang with the Yokama (Idea Woman) Award for 2026.

The award was presented on Tuesday, October 26, at a ceremony held at the forecourt of the Konor’s Palace in Odumase-Krobo in the Eastern Region, as part of the weeklong Ngmayem festival.

The Yokama title is a prestigious honour of the Manya Krobo State reserved for women who have distinguished themselves through their achievements and positive impact on others.

Introduced in 2003, the award is presented annually during the Manya Krobo Ngmayem festival, celebrated in October, under the auspices of the Konor of Manya Krobo.

It recognises women of distinguished standing who have made significant achievements and positively impacted the lives of others.

In the citation presented to Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, Nene Sakite II described the Yokama title as an honour that is neither inherited nor bought, but earned and deeply valued.

“In Manya Krobo, Yokama (Ideal Woman) is a title of honour that we give to a woman of distinguished standing who has also carried others along with her. The title is neither inherited nor bought; it is earned and deeply valued,” the citation read.

“Today, we honour her not for the position she holds, but for how she wove her way up with an uncommon determination to the height she has beautifully attained, and for the girls of this country who will go further because she went first.”

In his remarks, Nene Sakite II described the Vice President as a serial achiever and a woman of many firsts, saying her accomplishments made her a peerless role model for young women in Manya Krobo and across the country.

Other notable women who have received the Yokama Award in previous years include Docia Angelina Naki Kisseh, Ghana’s first Chief Nursing Officer and the first President of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association; Elsie Mabel Atta Sowah, one of Ghana’s first two female pharmacists; and Matilda Amissah-Arthur, a former Second Lady of Ghana.

Others are Ernestina Anafu, a retired geologist and one of the country’s foremost female geological engineers; Dr Harriet Narkie Amui, a former Principal of the Presbyterian Women’s College of Education in Aburi; and Juliana Teyegaga, a respected retired educationist.