Haruna Iddrisu

Haruna Iddrisu is a Ghanaian lawyer and National Democratic Congress (NDC) politician who has been Minister for Education since January 2025. He has represented Tamale South in Parliament since 2005, served as Minister for Communications, Trade and Industry and Employment and Labour Relations, and was Minority Leader from 2017 to 2023.

Early life and education

He was born on 8 September 1970 in Tamale and is Dagomba. He attended Navrongo and Tamale senior high schools and studied sociology at the University of Ghana from 1993 to 1997, where he was President of the National Union of Ghana Students in his final year. He later qualified as a lawyer and has been a member of the Ghana Bar Association since 2002.

Party and Parliament

Iddrisu was the NDC's National Youth Organiser for about eight years from 2002. He won the newly created Tamale South seat in the 2004 election and has held it since, with 78.2 per cent of the vote in 2008, 74.6 per cent in 2012 and 57.35 per cent (27,366 votes) in 2024. In 2023 he was returned unopposed in the NDC primaries.

Minister and Minority Leader

Under President John Evans Atta Mills he was Minister for Communications from 2009. Under President John Mahama he moved to Trade and Industry in 2013 and to Employment and Labour Relations from July 2014 to January 2017. After the NDC lost power he led the Minority in Parliament from 2017 until January 2023, when Cassiel Ato Forson replaced him.

When the NDC returned to power, Mahama named him Minister for Education, and he was sworn in on 22 January 2025. In February 2026 his office disowned social media posters suggesting he would run for the NDC flagbearer position. In June 2026, at the Islamic University College graduation, he announced a scholarship in memory of his late mother.

In October 2026 he directed the immediate suspension of Zakaria Abdulai, headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School, pending investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct involving a student, and asked the CID to investigate, after a JoyNews documentary by Manasseh Azure Awuni. The Ghana Education Service also interdicted the headmaster.

Football and personal life

He owns Karela United FC and Steadfast FC; Steadfast earned a reported 7.9 million euros from Abdul Fatawu Issahaku's transfer to Leicester City. He is a Muslim, married with three children.