Fifty-eight-year-old Constance Ama Emefa Edjeani-Afenu has made history by becoming the first woman to be elevated to the rank of Brigadier-General in the Ghanaian Army.

Constance, who joined the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in 1978 as an 18-year-old, got her appointment ratified on March 7, 2016 by Ghana’s Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Obed Boamah Akwa.

She says her induction and initial training in the army was crude and difficult but she persevered throughout the period because it was a choice she had already made as a young girl.

“The welcome to the Military Academy was crude, but I persevered having come to the realization that I had already made a decision to join the service,” said Constance who is just one rank away from Major-General, the topmost position in the army.

Her rise through the ranks had seen her serving in different capacities including the most recent as Ghana’s Deputy Military Advisor to its permanent mission in New York since 2013.

With the promotion, Constance joins the enviable list of top-ranking female officials in the country like Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo and Ghana’s Chief of Staff, Mrs. Cecilia Abena Dapaah.