Ashanti welcomes Samuel Sarpong as new regional minister

The former Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Samuel Sarpong, last Friday returned to Kumasi from Accra, after being sworn into office by the President, John Dramani Mahama, as the new Ashanti Regional Minister.

He was met on arrival at the Kumasi airport by the former Regional Minister, Dr. Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, regional and constituency party executives, district chief executives, members, and teeming supporters of the party.

The regional party chairman, Mr. Yaw Obimpeh, called for unity among members of the party, hoping that Mr. Sarpong would champion the cause of consolidating the fortunes of the party in the region towards Election 2016.

Responding to cheers by the enthusiastic party following at a reception organised in his honour, Mr. Sarpong expressed profound appreciation for the warm reception accorded him, and said the acceptance had confirmed the President’s appointment as a right decision.

He urged party members to embark on a membership drive to ensure a large following, in readiness for eventual electoral battles.

Mr. Samuel Sarpong was appointed Mayor of Kumasi by the late President John Atta Mills on April 6, 2009, and had since become a household name.

On January 22, 2013, President John Dramani Mahama designated him as Ashanti Regional Minister, upon which he was vetted by the Appointments Committee on February 13, 2013.

Last week Wednesday, February 20, 2013, Mr. Sarpong was sworn into office by the President. Samuel Sarpong was born on November 10, 1957 at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region. He trained as a professional teacher at the Wesley College in Kumasi, between 1978 and 1981, after he had pursued his secondary education at the Osei Tutu Secondary School at Akropong Ashanti.

In 1983, he pursued a year’s intelligence course at the Sofia College in Bulgaria, majoring in Criminology.

Before he pursued this course, he was a tutor at the Juaben Secondary School, from 1981 to 1984, before his appointment as a panel member of the Ashanti Regional Investigations Committee (ASHRIC) for five years, between1985-1990. He became the Chairman of ASHRIC for two years, from 1990 to 1992.

Spanning two regimes, from 1997 to 2008, Mr. Sarpong was put in charge of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions, as the substantive Zonal Head.

He also served as the Security Co-ordinator of the National Sports Council in the Ashanti Region from 1997-2001, and was a member of the Local Organising Committee and Chairman of the Sub-Security Committee for the CAN 2008.

In September 1999, Mr. Sarpong attended an Employee Performance Appraisal workshop in Accra, and also attended a Management and Development seminar on Project Monitoring, Evaluation and Sustainability at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Also in 2001, he undertook a special course on Presentation of Skills and Investigative Interviewing and Investigative management, organised by the Crown Agents of the United Kingdom at GIMPA in 2001. In April 2008, Mr. Sarpong was in South Africa for a ministerial course on Global Governance.

Sarpong holds an Executive Masters’ degree in Leadership and Governance at GIMPA in 2007.

He is a Christian (a church elder of the Garrison Methodist Church in Kumasi) and married to Mrs. Hannah Sarpong, with whom he has five issues (four boys and a girl).