Mustapha Ussif

Mustapha Ussif is a Ghanaian teacher, business manager and politician born on 16 August 1979 in Tantaala in the Northern Region, who serves as the Member of Parliament for the Yagaba-Kubori constituency in the North East Region. A member of the New Patriotic Party who has represented the constituency since 2013, with a four-year interruption after losing the seat in 2016 before reclaiming it in 2020, he served as Minister for Youth and Sports from March 2021 to January 2025 and has been a consistent advocate for educational sponsorship and teachers' recognition within his constituency.

Education

Ussif attended Koforidua Primary and Junior Secondary School and then Salaga Secondary School for his secondary education. He trained as a teacher at Bagabaga Training College in the Northern Region, obtaining a Teacher Certificate A from the University of Cape Coast between 1998 and 2001. He later pursued higher education in the United Kingdom, earning a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in International Business Management from Anglia Ruskin University at Chelmsford from 2007 to 2010, and an MBA in Financial Investment with distinction from the University of Gloucestershire from 2010 to 2011. He also completed an Executive Certificate in Management Development from the University of Wales.

Career and parliamentary history

He began his career teaching at Wataniya Islamic Primary and Junior Secondary School from 2001 to 2004. He subsequently worked in the United States as a store manager at Block and Hexter in Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2006, and as a Sales Manager at Spinach and Agushi in the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2008. He was first elected Member of Parliament for Yagaba-Kubori in 2012, representing a constituency in the North East Region's rural Mamprugu-Moagduri District. He lost the seat in the 2016 election and spent four years rebuilding his constituency support before reclaiming the seat in 2020. President Akufo-Addo appointed him Minister for Youth and Sports in March 2021, a portfolio he held until the end of the administration in January 2025. He retained the Yagaba-Kubori seat in December 2024, continuing his parliamentary service in the Ninth Parliament.

Political Legacy

Mustapha Ussif's resilience in losing and reclaiming his parliamentary seat, combined with his four-year ministerial tenure in youth and sports, reflects a political career built on persistence and community commitment in one of the North East Region's rural constituencies.