Ghana Navy’s First Female Commanding Officer Inspires Others

ADF STAFF

One of the many points of pride in the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is its embrace of gender equality and policies to integrate women into the military.

Lt. Cdr. Priscilla Ami Dogbeda Dzokoto, the first female commanding officer of a Ghana Navy ship, embodies the GAF’s success.

“We have had females be generals. We have had females be appointed as commanding officers of several units in the armed forces now,” she said in a United Nations video posted on March 31. “There’s more room for more women to be appointed in higher positions in the armed forces.”

The Navy appointed Dzokoto commanding officer of GNS Blika on April 11, 2022 after she previously helmed one of the navy’s river-class ships, the GNS Ankobra.

“As a commanding officer, my role is the safe navigation and technical operation of the ship,” she said. “If you go out to sea, I am responsible for everything concerning the ship.”

Commissioned into the Ghana Navy in February 2012, the GNS Blika is one of four Snake-class vessels primarily used for anti-drug trafficking, anti-smuggling, anti-piracy and fisheries enforcement operations.

In a statement, Navy Capt. Michael Addo Larbi, director of public relations, acknowledged the historical nature of Dzokoto’s appointment as “a feat she achieved by dint of hard work, perseverance and God’s grace.”

In rising through the ranks, Dzokoto served in many capacities, including navigation officer, assistant navigation officer, communication officer, acting executive officer, correspondence officer and watch-keeping officer.

She also gained valuable peacekeeping experience as a military observer with the U.N. Interim Security Force in Abyei, known as UNISFA, in 2020. Abyei was a disputed area between South Sudan and Sudan.

With pioneers such as Dzokoto, Ghana has become a leader in gender mainstreaming. The GAF launched a comprehensive gender policy on March 15 and has worked to increase female enlistment.

Ghana Navy Capt. Veronica Adzo, gender policy advisor to Chief of the Defense Staff Maj. Gen. Thomas Oppong-Peprah, has seen increasing opportunities for women in the GAF.

“It has given a lot more women the courage, the can-do spirit,” she said in the U.N. video. “Going forward we believe that the young woman out there has every opportunity in the military … not limited to only administration but every branch of the Ghana Armed Forces.”

Ghanaian Cdre. Faustina Anokye, former deputy force commander for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara known as MINURSO, took the reins from her predecessor, fellow Ghanaian Maj. Gen. Constance Emefa Edjeani-Afenu, who died after an illness in Ghana a few weeks after completing her MINUSRSO tour in January 2022.

“The world will be a better place with gender equality,” Anokye told the U.N. “We should therefore continue to challenge gender stereotypes, call out discrimination, draw attention to biases and seek out inclusion.”

Adzo praised Dzokoto as a trailblazer for taking command in a branch of the GAF that historically has been served by male Sailors and officers since its founding in 1959.

“It is difficult working in a male-dominated environment such as the Ghana Armed Forces,” she said. “That is why the military high command decided to take the issue of gender mainstreaming a notch higher — to see to it that the agenda is carried out successfully.”