Eric Opoku

Eric Opoku is a Ghanaian teacher, agriculturalist and politician born on 5 June 1970 in Sankore in the Ahafo Region, who serves as the Member of Parliament for the Asunafo South constituency and as Minister for Food and Agriculture in the government of President John Dramani Mahama. A member of the National Democratic Congress who has represented Asunafo South since 2013, he has combined a career in teaching and cooperative agricultural development with multi-term parliamentary service and a ministerial appointment that places him in charge of Ghana's most strategically important sector by employment and food security.

Education and early career

Opoku earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2004, providing an academic foundation in the social sciences that has informed both his understanding of rural communities and his approach to agricultural development. Before and during his early political career, he worked as a teacher with the Ghana Education Service at SDA Primary School in Sankore from 1997 to 2000, giving him direct community engagement in his home area. From 1998 to 2001, he worked alongside his teaching role as the Society Development Secretary at Kuapa Kookoo Limited, the cocoa farmer cooperative that became internationally known for its direct trading relationships and farmer-ownership model. His work at Kuapa Kookoo gave him early practical exposure to the cooperative agricultural economy and the challenges of building farmer incomes in the cocoa sector.

Parliamentary career

He was first elected Member of Parliament for Asunafo South in the 2012 general election and assumed office in January 2013. He retained the seat in 2016 with 52.97 per cent of the valid votes and was re-elected in subsequent cycles. He has consistently represented a constituency in the Ahafo Region's forest belt where cocoa and timber are the primary economic activities and farmer welfare is a central constituency concern.

As Minister for Food and Agriculture

President Mahama appointed him Minister for Food and Agriculture in January 2025. The ministry oversees Ghana's agricultural sector, including food production, input supply, extension services and agribusiness development across the country's diverse farming communities. His background in social science, cooperative agricultural work and his years of representing a predominantly farming constituency give him an unusual combination of technical orientation and practical political experience for one of Ghana's most critical cabinet portfolios.

Political Legacy

Eric Opoku's elevation from constituency teacher and cooperative development worker to multi-term MP and cabinet minister in the sector he has advocated for in his career represents a career trajectory with unusual coherence between professional roots and political responsibility.