Next time you hand over a green GH¢10 note for trotro fare, waakye, or groceries, take a closer look at the face staring back at you. Starting December 1, 2026, the Bank of Ghana’s Heritage Series redesign replaces the familiar “Big Six” group portrait on the ten-cedi banknote with a single, extraordinary pioneer: Justice Annie Ruth Jiagge (1918–1996). Honored under the theme of “Justice & Equality,” she is much more than a historical figure from a textbook. She is the reason millions of women in Ghana and around the world have a legal and financial seat at the table today.
Before Annie Jiagge, the upper ranks of the legal profession in Ghana—and across the entire British Commonwealth—were strictly an all-boys’ club. Born Annie Ruth Baëta on October 7, 1918, in Lomé (present-day Togo), she actually began her career in the classroom after earning her Teacher’s Certificate from Achimota College in 1937. However, while working as a teacher and headmistress in the 1940s, she realized that while educating young women was vital, she needed to be in the courtroom to truly protect them from systemic unfairness.
With her family’s backing, she traveled to the United Kingdom, earned her law degree from the London School of Economics in 1949, and passed the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1950. Returning home to the Gold Coast, she wasted no time rewriting history. In 1950, she became the first woman in the Gold Coast to open a private law firm, and following her marriage to Fred Jiagge in 1953, she left private practice to become Ghana’s first female magistrate. After serving on the Circuit Court, she made global headlines in 1961 as the first woman in Ghana and the entire Commonwealth of Nations to become a High Court judge. By 1980, she had risen to become President of the Court of Appeal—the highest judicial office in Ghana at the time—serving until her retirement in 1983. Even after stepping down from the bench, her legal mind shaped our democracy as she helped draft both Ghana’s 1979 Third Republic Constitution and the 1992 Fourth Republic Constitution, later serving on the Council of State until her passing in June 1996.
Justice Jiagge didn’t just change laws at home; she changed them for the entire world. Representing Ghana on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from 1962 to 1972, she became the principal author of the landmark 1967 Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. That document served as the foundational blueprint for CEDAW, the international treaty widely known as the global “bill of rights” for women. Every time a country passes a law protecting women from workplace discrimination, unequal pay, or domestic abuse, Justice Jiagge’s fingerprints are on it.
One of the most inspiring things about Justice Jiagge was her practicality, as she understood that legal rights on paper mean very little if women cannot feed their families, own property, or grow their businesses. In 1975, she founded and chaired the Ghana National Council on Women and Development. Soon after, she teamed up with another legendary Ghanaian trailblazer, industrialist Esther Ocloo, to co-found Women’s World Banking. Their mission was straightforward yet revolutionary: help everyday market women and female entrepreneurs get access to bank loans and credit when traditional banks turned them away.
Despite sitting on international panels and advising heads of state, she never lost touch with ordinary people, and around Accra, she was affectionately known simply as “Auntie Annie.” In the late 1950s, while serving as President of the Ghana YWCA, she noticed that young women migrating to Accra for work had nowhere safe to stay. She marched straight to President Kwame Nkrumah and successfully lobbied for government funding to build safe hostel accommodations for working girls. Later in life, she also made history as the first African woman President of the World Council of Churches from 1975 to 1983, using her global platform to mobilize fierce international opposition against South Africa’s apartheid regime.
When the redesigned GH¢10 note hits circulation on December 1, take a moment to spot the thoughtful details the Bank of Ghana included to honor her story. The reverse side features the Supreme Court of Ghana fronted by the Martyrs of the Rule of Law monument as a fitting tribute to her decades on the bench, while the traditional Akan Adinkra symbol Epa (handcuffs) is woven into the design to represent law, justice, and authority.
Ultimately, the faces we put on our money tell the story of what a nation values most. By placing Justice Annie Jiagge on the GH¢10 note, Ghana is sending a clear, inspiring message to every young girl and boy who spends it to stand up for fairness, break the barriers that hold people back, and always leave the door open for the next generation.
