Meet lady who skipped JHS to become Ghana’s youngest chartered accountant at 18

Princess Korkor Boateng had an unusual schooling journey, completely different from what is the norm in Ghana.

Ghana’s schooling system requires that every child attends primary school for 6 years, Junior High School for 3 years, Senior High School for 3 years, and tertiary for 4 years.

This is a total of 15 years.

But according to Princess, she wrote a special common entrance exam required by the Akosombo International School at the age of 11 when she was in class six. This enabled her to enter senior high school without writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) or even going through JHS education.

After completing Akosombo International School at 14 for her SHS education, she applied to the University of Ghana, Legon. After this, she applied to do a professional course in Chartered Accountancy.

Princess is currently in her final year at the University of Ghana but is already a chartered accountant.

Speaking to BBC pidgin, she noted that she faced many challenges in her endeavor to become a chartered accountant, concurrently with her studies at Legon.

One of the challenges she recounted was “combining my first degree with the professional course. I had to learn concurrently in my academic course and my professional course and there were times when my exams clashed with my tests and quizzes from school.”

She was both grateful and proud of her parents' support in her life and her journey as a chartered accountant.

“They supported me financially, and emotionally and they were there always to reassure me anytime I needed help,” she said.

Princess Korkor Boateng received the President’s Award as well when she graduated as a chartered accountant. She expressed her satisfaction with the fact that her hard work had gained due recognition.

Today, Princess is Ghana's youngest chartered accountant.

On her future plans, Princess Korkor Boateng said she would like to work in "one of the top four," however, for her long-term goals, she would like to become a financial analyst and work for the World Bank.

She charged young people to go for their goals and not be intimated by their age.

Congratulations, Princess Korkor Boateng. We are proud of you.#UGIS75#IntegriProcedamus pic.twitter.com/IkxfAkmM2c

— University of Ghana (@UnivofGh) May 4, 2023