Who is Dr Letitia Obeng, the scientist at the centre of the GH¢50 note row?

Shortly after the Bank of Ghana unveiled the Heritage Series banknotes, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin accused the government of putting a different face on the new GH¢50 note from the one it was meant to carry.

The note is dedicated to Theodosia Okoh, the designer of Ghana’s national flag.

Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Mr Afenyo-Markin said the government “got her picture wrong.” He accused it of rushing the redesign of the currency and asked how Ghanaians could trust it with the economy if it could not pick the right picture for a banknote.

Later, Prof Eddie Obeng, a nephew of Mrs Okoh, said on LinkedIn that the woman on the note appears to be his mother, Dr Letitia Obeng, Mrs Okoh’s younger sister.

He said he had been proud to hear his aunt was being honoured and had even started composing a message to his cousin before he looked at the note.

“Imagine my surprise when I took a look and realised that they have used a picture of my mother instead – she’s famous for being the country’s first lady PhD,” he wrote.

However, Beatrice Annan, a member of the Bank of Ghana’s board, said in a Facebook post that the bank worked from three authentic photographs of Mrs Okoh, two from her younger years and one from later in life, to produce a single image of her as a mature woman.

The new notes are expected to enter circulation on December 1, and the existing notes will remain legal tender during the transition.

Letitia Eva Takyibea Obeng was the first Ghanaian woman to earn a degree in zoology and the first to be awarded a doctorate. She is known as “the grandmother of female scientists in Ghana.”

She was born on January 10, 1925, in Anum in the Eastern Region, the fifth of eight children of Rev Emmanuel Victor Asihene and Dora Asihene. Her father was a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

Mrs Okoh, the fourth of the eight children, was her elder sister.

Dr Obeng was the first scientist employed by the National Research Council of Ghana. Her work covered zoology, parasitology, aquatic biology and environmental conservation.

She published her autobiography, A Silent Heritage, in 2008 and launched another book, Anthology of a Lifetime, in July 2019. A CSIR laboratory block was named after her in 1997.

She died on March 23, 2023, aged 98, and is survived by three children: Letitia Adwoa Roche, Ernest Obeng and Edward Obeng.

Beatrice Annan clarifies Theodosia Okoh’s portrait on new GH¢50 note amid public concerns

Portrait on new GH¢50 note is not Theodosia Okoh – Nephew

Afenyo-Markin questions accuracy of Theodosia Okoh’s portrait on new GH¢50 note