The nephew of Theodosia Okoh says the woman pictured on the new GH¢50 note is not the designer of Ghana’s flag, but his mother.
Prof Eddie Obeng, a Ghanaian academic, said he started writing a congratulatory message to a cousin after hearing his aunt would appear on one of the new Heritage Series banknotes. But he stopped to take a closer look at the note.
He believes the portrait shows his mother, Dr Letitia Obeng, a respected zoologist who is said to have been the first Ghanaian woman to earn a doctorate.
Theodosia Okoh was Dr Letitia Obeng’s sister, making the alleged mix-up particularly striking. Prof Obeng said the situation had left him with “a wry smile on my face that won’t go away, and occasionally I shake my head or giggle.”
“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 on LinkedIn. “You can’t make it up.”
The claim has raised questions about whether the portraits on Ghana’s redesigned banknotes are accurate.
