Eric Opoku (politician)

Eric Opoku was born on 5 June 1970.^[1][5] He hails from a town called Sankore in the Ahafo region of Ghana.^[1][5] He had his Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in year 2004.^[1][5]

Opoku is a farmer/ agriculturist.^[5] Prior to his appointment into parliament, he worked as a teacher with the Ghana Education Service at SDA Primary School in Sankore, from 1997 to 2000.^[1][5] He has also worked with Kuapa Kookoo Ltd as the Society Development Secretary from 1998 to 2001.^[1]

Opoku was first elected into parliament in the 3rd parliament of the 4th republic of Ghana as the member of parliament for the Asunafo South constituency in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana.^[1][5] Though he lost his seat in the subsequent election, he was elected again into parliament on 7 January 2013 after claiming victory at the 2012 Ghanaian General Elections to represent the Asunafo South constituency and served until 6 January 2017. He was then reelected on 7 January 2017 after the 2016 Ghanaian General Elections where he obtained 52.97% of the valid votes cast.
He has worked as the Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister from 2009 to 2013.^[5] In the 7th parliament of the 4th republic of Ghana he served on the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee as a ranking Member.^[1] He also served on the Privileges Committee and Appointments Committee in the same parliament.^[1]

Opoku received an award as the best member of parliament for communal and rural development for 2017 from the Bureau of Research on Governance, Commerce and Administration (BORGCA). This award was given for his contribution to developmental projects in the Asunafo South constituency.^[6] In January 2025, President Mahama swore him and others into office as ministers to oversee various ministries. He was appointed as the Minister of Food and Agriculture.^[7]

Opoku was elected as the member of parliament for the Asunafo South constituency of the Brong Ahafo region in the 2004 Ghanaian general elections.^[8][9] He won on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress.^[8][9] His constituency was a part of the 10 parliamentary seats out of a total 24 seats won by the National Democratic Congress in that election for the Brong Ahafo Region.^[10][11] The Asunafo South constituency saw a ‘skirt and blouse’ voting by electorates in that election as the presidential candidate elected by the constituency electorates was John Kufour of the major opposition New Patriotic Party.^[8] The National Democratic Congress won a minority total of 94 parliamentary seats out of 230 seats in that elections.^[10] Opoku was elected with 14,076 votes out of 29,345 total valid votes cast, equivalent to 48% of total valid votes cast.^[8][9] He was elected over George William Amponsah of the New Patriotic Party, Jack Kennedy Brobbey an independent candidate and Fredrick Nkrumah of the Convention People's Party.^[8][9] These obtained 43.80%, 7.30% and 0.90% respectively of total valid votes cast.^[8][9]

Opoku was re-elected in the 2020 Parliamentary election to represent them in the 8th Parliament of the fourth Republic of Ghana. He was re-elected in the 2024 parliamentary election to represent the Asunafo South constituents in the 9th parliament in the fourth republic of Ghana. He gearned 25,244 which represent 57.40% of the votes in the election.^[12]