Hot!
Combining barbering and music as business …the story of Elizabeth Amponsah
Young Elizabeth Amponsah was ambitious while in secondary school but had to reconsider her options because her plans took a different turn.
She had to quit Adonten Senior High School in her final year in 2009 due to financial constraints. Her effort to attend remedial school was also challenged as she lacked the needed financial and family support to see it through.
In order not to waste her talent, she decided to venture into barbering to survive. With years of practice and consistency, she has mastered the craft and continues to attract patrons who admire and encourage her to keep doing what she does best.
Background
Elizbeth crops top artists including Yaw Berk 
Elizabeth on duty 
Elizabeth hails from Boti in the Yilo Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region Eastern. Her father is a retired public servant; her mother a petty trader. She had basic education at Boti Roman Catholic School before entering Adonten Senior Secondary School, at Aburi.
“Dropping out of school was unfortunate because I really loved to be in school and I actively took part in a lot of activities.
“When I was in school, I was able to use the blade and the barbering machine to shave my seniors and juniors and I used to do braids for other colleagues as well,” the 29-year-old told The Spectator, recounting how she found herself in a male dominated profession.
Having learnt the rudiments of barbering in school, she relocated to Koforidua to polish her skill under the apprenticeship of a male barber, without her family knowing about it.
“The barber was impressed that I was the first female to approach him so he taught me everything I was supposed to know and in three months I was perfect using the machine and people started noticing me,” she recalled.
Starting off at this barber’s shop, Elizabeth’s honesty and hardwork eventually paid off when the owner of the shop handed it over to her to operate on full-time basis. Pregnancy, however, set in after she had worked for two and half years.
“I had to quit the job to take care of my child but I soon had another job offer when my baby was five months old. I had no choice but to move to Accra,” she said.
Life in Accra was not as easy as she thought yet she managed to start working at a barber’s shop at Kwabenya and later a mini spa at Ashongman where she was offered free accommodation.
“I learnt a lot while working here though the income was not enough. I learnt how to do dreadlocks, pedicure, body massage, among others.
“After working for a while, I moved to Osu to look for other opportunities, until I found Classic Barbering Shop where I have been working for the past one and half years,” she said.
Experience
Elizabeth says she receives lots of compliment from individuals and prominent figures who come for grooming at the shop.
She uses her social media Instagram page to highlight her works and says the positive feedback from clients encourages her to keep doing more.
The industrious female barber who has passion for music, mentions musician Fameye, Jupiter, Guru and Ras Kuuku as some of the top artistes who continue to patronise her barbering and grooming services.
As a female in a male dominated profession, she has admitted the “unfriendly advances” of some male clients but says she often tries to maintain a “professional distance” at all times.
“This job gives me lots of exposure and I often meet single men and married men and some try to sway me with money but I have advised myself not to fall victim again,” she said.
She noted her family now accepts what she does and are willing to provide the needed support as she aims to establish her own multipurpose grooming shop in future.
Music
Elizabeth looks forward to combining barbering and music as a lifetime business, tour the world with her music and train other young girls when she is fully established.
She has a soft spot for Dancehall Artiste, Shatta Wale, and says she would provide free grooming services for him when the opportunity comes.
The budding musician said she had started singing and recording highlife music but had to abandon it after battling a life-threatening illness. Nonetheless, she still wants to collaborate with other musicians to release a hit album or single and also own a recording studio in future.
Elizabeth has seven other siblings and is a member of the Assemblies of God Church. Using her life as an example, she encourages teenage mothers to live responsible lives, take good advice from elders, pursue their ambition and never be discouraged in life.
“You still have life and opportunity to do something even if you drop out of school or give birth at a young age. I gave birth early but I did not give up,” she said.
By Ernest Nutsugah & Priscilla Efriyie Ankapong
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
