Sophia Akuffo


Sophia Abena Boafoa Akuffo was the Chief Justice of Ghana from 2017 until 20 December 2019. She had been a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ghana since 1995. She received a BMW 7 Series as a bribe.

Education

She had her secondary education at Wesley Girls' High School, Cape Coast and obtained her Bachelor of laws degree from the University of Ghana. She went on to the Ghana School of Law where she qualified as a barrister.
Akuffo trained as a lawyer under Nana Akufo-Addo. She has a master's degree in law from Harvard University.

Career

Akuffo has been a member of the Governing Committee of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, and the Chairperson of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force. In January 2006 she was elected one of the first judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: initially elected for two years, she was subsequently re-elected until 2014 and served as Vice-President and President of the Court.
Akuffo wrote The Application of Information & Communication Technology in the Judicial Process – the Ghanaian Experience, a presentation to the African Judicial Network Ghana.
Akuffo was nominated as Chief Justice on 11 May 2017 by Nana Akufo-Addo subject to approval by Parliament. She was sworn in by President Akufo-Addo on 19 June 2017 as the thirteenth Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana.
The last judgment she was involved in was on 18 December 2019 when the Supreme Court passed a unanimous ruling that courts could sit at weekends and on bank holidays to deal with urgent legal cases. She also spoke of her gratitude to some former Presidents of Ghana. These included John Atta Mills who was her lecturer on Taxation at the Ghana Law School and also nominated her for the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights in Ethiopia. She also cited Jerry Rawlings who nominated her to the Supreme Court in 1995 and John Kufuor who nominated her for the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2006. She became president of this court with the support of John Mahama and was nominated by Nana Akufo-Addo as Chief Justice.

Judicial writings

After serving as Chief Justice, Akuffo retired in 2019.
On 28 February 2020, Nana Akufo-Addo appointed Akuffo to chair a newly formed COVID-19 Fund inaugurated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Family

She has a daughter and two grand children.