Assoc. Prof. Ephraim Avea Nsoh started his career at the University of Education, Winneba in 1993 as a part-time tutor.  Two years later, he attained status of a full-time employee. By dint of hard work, he rose to the rank of an Associate Professor in 2012. Assoc. Prof. Nsoh was employed at the then Department of Ghanaian Languages Education. He holds a professorial position at the Department of Gur-Gonja Languages Education at the Faculty of Ghanaian Languages Education at the College of Languages Education of the University of Education in Ajumako. He has 25 years experience in teaching, research, university administration, academic counselling, academic leadership and mentoring of young academics. In addition to these, he has gained extensive insights into government particularly local governance and a very good understanding of development work. As a result,  he has worldwide networking in the academia, government and the development world. He has hands-on practical experience in strategic planning, some investment training skills, and a commitment to developing the creative potential of young people. Revitalising, preserving and promoting Ghanaian and African cultures and languages are a serious concern to him. He has a PhD and MA in Linguistics and a BA in Linguistics and French.He spent one academic year at the Université de Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso as part of his French programme at the University of Ghana, Legon.

His main teaching and research areas include descriptive, documentary and theoretical Linguistics, Culture, translation theory and practice, African oral literature, creative writing, literacy and material development in indigenous languages, Language Policy and Planning in Education, Language and politics, Language and law, Language human rights, Linguistics and Business, and development research. He has contributed immensely to research at his Faculty and Department. He represented the Faculty on the Research Extension and Staff Development Committee and was for a long time the Chairman of the Faculty and Departmental Conferences and Seminars Committee. In 2008, he was the Chairman of the West African Linguistic Conference organizing Committee. He has conducted some researches including the Gurenε dictionary project which culminated in the Gurenε-English bilingual dictionary, a Gurenε-English glossary and a lot of lexicographic data; the Gurenε dialect survey, research into the noun and adjective words.  In development research he is one of the Principal Investigators (PIs) in the school fees payment in the Upper East region, and PI in the hawking business in the Bolgatanga Municipality and citizen participation in the Bongo district of the Upper East region. In education, he was part of the research into the First Phase of the Performance of pupils in primary schools in the three Northern regions under the Government of Ghana-USAID PME project and currently one of the PIs in the proposed Language Mapping project under the Ghana-USAID Learning project. The school fees payment and examination timetable research projects at the College of Languages Education are at various stages of completion.

In October 2003 he was the recipient of a NUFU Scholarship Award tenable at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. Again, in 2005, he received a Commonwealth Scholarships Award for the Split-site doctoral programme in Linguistics tenable at The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.

Assoc. Prof. Nsoh began his teaching and research career at the University of Ghana. He was employed at the University of Ghana Language Centre as a Senior Research Assistant to Professor M. E. K. Dakubu in 1992. During this period they collected, analysed and classified data for the proposed Gurenε-English bilingual dictionary. Together with Professor Dakubu they facilitated the development of the Gurenε Unified writing system which was the basis of the writing and publication of Gurenε-English dictionary.

Professor Nsoh has a number of books, book chapters, journal articles and several manuscripts to his credits. He authored a number of non-formal education manuals and post literacy reading material. He was also the editor of the Gulugo newspaper written in Gurenε and published by the Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education (MoE). In addition, he is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Languages and Cultures. Mostly as part of his teaching and research activities, he has travelled abroad on different occasions. He has been to Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, UK, Norway, Brazil, Australia and Germany to study or present conference papers

In March 2013, Assoc. Prof.  Nsoh was appointed Regional Minister of the Upper East region and immediately after re-assigned to the Upper West region and eventually ended his ministerial career back in the Upper East region. Whiles in the Upper West region, he became the only Regional Minister in government to initiate and complete the crafting of the 5-year Upper West Regional Development Strategy with huge support from local and international development organisations. He also initiated another regional strategy in the Upper East region but did not stay long enough to see its completion. In a similar vein, he successfully attracted the World Bank (WB) country director and his team to hold several high level meetings in the Upper West region. These consultations resulted in additional funding support to the region and also enabled the Upper West region to directly contribute to the review of WB supported projects such as the Skills Development Fund (SDF) and the Livelihood Empowerment and Against Poverty (LEAP). Through his elaborate development agenda, he attracted huge funding support to the region and left an enviable legacy within a short period of less than one year. Resource mobilisation is one of his greatest assets. He lived above partisan politics and ensured that all persons of different political persuasions contributed to the development of the two regions that he superintended over.

In addition to his administrative experience as Regional Minister, he was also the Head of Department and Co-ordinator for post-graduate studies at the University of Education, Winneba on several occasions.

Over the years,  he has been a lead advocate for mother tongue education. In that respect he has presented memoranda to various National Committees on the promotion of indigenous language and culture in the classroom. In 2002, he led a team to present and defend a memorandum on the use of Ghanaian Languages as media of instruction and subjects of study before the Anamuah-Mensah Education Review Committee. Similarly, earlier in 1994 he had presented a memorandum to the Education Review Committee on the inclusion of the Ghanaian languages in the Senior Secondary School programme as core subjects. In 2000, together with some colleagues, they established the Centre for the Advocacy on Language and Culture (CALaC) for which he was once a Director. CALaC successfully organized a national conference on mother tongue education in Ghana with support from the GTZ (now GIZ). CALaC also organized press conferences, made press releases and spoke on various issues relating to indigenous language and culture education. CALaC was very influential in helping to reverse the English-only language policy approved by cabinet in 2002. He was the director of the Centre.

He belongs to a number of local and international organisations including the Association of Teachers of Ghanaian Languages (ATGL), the Linguistics Association of Ghana (LAG), the West African Linguistics Society (WALS), the World Congress on African Linguistics (WOCAL), and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG).

His University duties require him to contribute directly to the development of society. In that regard, Professor Nsoh is the co-founder of TEERE, a non-governmental organization with its main office in the Upper East region. The organization is currently implementing various projects including those sponsored by STAR-Ghana and funded by the UKAid, DANIDA, the EU, and the Robert Bosch Foundation of Germany. He has sponsored and facilitated the formation of over 200 village savings and loans associations with membership of about 7000 and still growing. The associations aim at empowering poor rural women. He has been engaged in several other philanthropic and community development activities both at the University and in his home region.

Date: September 30, 2016