Francisca Ashietey-Odunton

Francisca Ashietey-Odunton (née Ashietey) is a Ghanaian journalist, broadcaster and diplomat. She was the Acting Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and since 2021, she has been Ghana's ambassador to Turkey. Before that, she served as Ghana's High Commissioner to Kenya from 2017 to 2021.^[2][3][4]

Francisca Ashietey attended Aburi Girls' Senior High School for her Ordinary and Advanced Level Certificates. She attended the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where she obtained a Bachelors of Arts degree in Social Sciences with a major in English.^[5]

She is a barrister at law with 16 years of experience, having been called to the Ghana Bar after obtaining her LLB from the Ghana School of Law in 1997. She holds a master's degree in media and communication from the London School of Economics. She also obtained a graduate certificate in human rights/international cooperation at the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan.^[6]

Francisca Ashietey-Odunton has over 20 years' experience as a broadcaster with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. She joined the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in 1990 as a senior production assistant attached to the Production Division where she worked on various programmes including Kyekyekule, Children's Own, Adult Education and Country Music. She was also a TV presenter. She rose through the ranks as producer and director, after which she was transferred to the TV newsroom in 1994. She served in various capacities there as news reader, editor and presidential correspondent for eight years. She later became Chief Editor and was transferred to the legal division as Senior Legal Officer. Ashietey-Odunton has covered international conferences, including the African Union Summit, Ecowas Summit and World Food Summit.^[7][8]

She was first appointed Deputy Director-General General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in November 2013.^[9] She was subsequently made the Acting Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in May, 2016.^[10]

On Wednesday 2 August 2017, the president of Ghana, Nana Akuffo-Addo, named Francisca Ashietey-Odunton as Ghana's high commissioner to Kenya. She was among four other distinguished Ghanaians who were named to head various diplomatic Ghanaian missions in the world.^[2]Even though, she was ambassador to Kenya, she had oversight roles over four other countries including Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. Under her guidance, Rwanda established its first diplomatic mission in Accra, Ghana in 2020.^[5][11]

In Kenya, Ashietey-Odunton was also Ghana's permanent representative to the United Nations offices in Nairobi which host the organisation's two bodies in sub-sahara Africa, that is United Nations Environmental Protection and the United Nations Human Settlement Programme. Also, as Ghana’s Permanent Representative she served as Chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) Bureau of UNEP and oversaw the 4TH  UN Environment Assembly and also served as Africa’s Representative and Rapporteur of the UNEP CPR Bureau.^[5]

In 2021, she was reassigned to head Ghana's embassy in Turkey. She presented her letter of credentials to the President of Turkey in September that year.^[12]

Ashietey-Odunton is married to Olu Christopher Odunton; the couple has two daughters.^[5]