Abdul Aziz Fatahiya

Abdul Aziz Fatahiya, popularly known as Hajia Fatahiya, is a Ghanaian supply chain professional and politician born on 21 March 1982 who serves as the Member of Parliament for the Savelugu constituency in the Northern Region. Her election in December 2024 on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party made her the only female Member of Parliament-elect from the Northern Region in Ghana's Ninth Parliament, a distinction that drew considerable national attention to a predominantly male regional political landscape.

Education

Fatahiya attended Ghana Senior High School (Ghanasco) for her secondary education, before pursuing professional qualifications in business and supply chain. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Professional Studies, Accra, combining financial services training with the commercial foundations that inform her later work. She later completed a Master of Science degree in Supply Chain Management from Coventry University in the United Kingdom, building specialist expertise in logistics and supply chain operations that placed her among a small group of northern Ghanaian politicians with postgraduate international academic credentials.

Professional career

Before entering elective politics, Fatahiya served as a Presidential Staffer, a role that embedded her in the operational work of the executive branch and gave her first-hand experience of public administration and governmental processes. Her supply chain background and banking finance training reflect a professional identity oriented toward economic and commercial problem-solving, skills she has brought to her parliamentary work alongside her sustained advocacy for women's representation in the north.

2024 election and parliamentary career

Contesting the December 2024 general election on the NPP ticket, she defeated the incumbent NDC Member of Parliament for Savelugu with 27,450 votes against her opponent's 24,877, a margin that reflected competitive campaigning in a constituency that had previously returned NDC representation. Her victory in Savelugu, in the heart of the Northern Region, was among the more notable individual results in a general election dominated by the NDC's national swing. She assumed office on 7 January 2025 and was appointed to the Gender, Children and Social Welfare Committee as Deputy Ranking Member, as well as to the Sanitation and Water Resources Committee and the Ethics and Standards Committee.

Political Legacy

Abdul Aziz Fatahiya's status as the sole woman returned from the Northern Region to Ghana's Ninth Parliament places her in a historic but isolated position. Her election underscores both the persistence required of women seeking to break into northern Ghanaian political representation and the continued structural underrepresentation of women in the region's parliamentary delegation.