Dr Freda Akosua Oheneafrewo Prempeh, former Member of Parliament for Tano North Constituency in the Ahafo Region, has expressed worry that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is gradually losing the values and principles upon which it was founded.
She said: “The NPP I have known since 1991 is losing its values through some disrespectful young ones because they don’t respect our party values and principles.”
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Duayaw-Nkwanta, the Tano North constituency capital, Dr Prempeh, who also served as a Minister of State, called on the party hierarchy to intensify efforts to educate the youth about the NPP’s ideologies and philosophies.
“I am really scared for my party in the current happenings. This is the great party some of us stood for during the turbulent times from 1992 to 2000, and it is unfortunate that some disrespectful ones are eroding the gains of our internal democracy,” she lamented.
Dr Prempeh revealed that although many distinguished party members had encouraged her to contest for a national leadership position, the recent internal developments within the party were worrying. She was, however, reluctant to comment on the upcoming NPP Presidential Primary scheduled for January 31, 2026, but noted that, “Many women in our party can’t declare their support because they feel Dr Bawumia’s team will sabotage them.”
Born on January 23, 1966, Dr Prempeh is a Ghanaian politician who served in both the Seventh and Eighth Parliaments of the Fourth Republic as the representative of the Tano North Constituency. She was Minister of State at the Ministry of Works and Housing, and previously served as Deputy Minister of Gender and Social Protection.
Between 2002 and 2010, she was the Assembly Member for the Lakoo Electoral Area in the La-Dadekotopo Constituency of the Greater Accra Region. In 2017, she was appointed Chairperson of an 11-member local organising committee for the 2018 African Women’s Cup of Nations.
Dr Prempeh was born in Accra to a Ghanaian royal family, the third daughter of the late Ohenenana Akwasi Agyeman Dua-Prempeh of the Ashanti Royal Family and the late Nana Amma Serwaa (Madam Georgina Ansah), Kontrihemaa of the Duayaw-Nkwanta Traditional Area in the Ahafo Region.
She began her education at the University Primary School in Kumasi, continued at Technology Secondary School (now KNUST Senior High School), and completed her Advanced Level education at the Accra Workers College. She later pursued a Diploma in Public Relations and Advertising at the Ghana Institute of Journalism and was certified as a Public Accountant by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration in 1998.
Dr Prempeh holds both Certificate and Advanced Certificate qualifications in Marketing, DipM, MCIM, and a Chartered Marketer Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, United Kingdom. She earned a degree in Business Administration (Human Resource Management) from the University of Ghana in 2006, an MA in Communications, Media and Public Relations from the University of Leicester, UK, and a PhD in Business Administration from the Ghana Technology University College.
A staunch Christian, Dr Prempeh is married with a son. She nearly lost her life during the June 3, 2015, floods and fire disaster at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra. Before entering Parliament in 2013, she worked as a manageress at Point Four Hotel in Sunyani and served in the Ghana Prisons Service for 10 years.
Her political journey began in 2002 as an Assembly Member and later as Public Affairs Officer at the National Reconciliation Commission in 2006. She served on the Mines and Energy and Government Assurance Committees in Parliament and was later appointed Deputy Minister of Works and Housing before being elevated to substantive Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Dr Prempeh won the Tano North parliamentary seat for the NPP in the 2020 elections with more than 51 per cent of the vote, serving her third term in the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic. However, she lost her bid to represent the constituency for a fourth term during the party’s 2024 parliamentary primaries.
