Kwesi Yankah is a Ghanaian academic, author, and university administrator. He is a professor of linguistics and oral literature specializing in the ethnography of communication.

He has served as the Pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana and the president of the Central University. The author of several books, he was inducted as a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. He is currently the Ghanaian Minister of State in charge of tertiary education.

Kwesi Yankah's doctoral thesis earned him the Esther Kinsley Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation at Indiana University, United States. He spent most of his working life in academia and lectured at the University of Ghana.

He held several positions in the university where he was Dean of Students the university as well as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Head of Linguistics Department.

His last position at the university was that of Pro-vice-chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs. In September 2011, he succeeded Professor Victor Gadzekpo as the President of the Central University in Ghana his appointment coincided with Rev. Prof. Addow Obeng's appointment as Central University's Pro-Vice-Chancellor.

Kwesi Yankah served as the university president until March 2017, when he was appointed a Minister of State. During his working life, Kwesi Yankah also contributed to several newspapers, including The Mirror and Catholic Standard. He has authored many books, including Speaking for the Chief: Okyeame and the Politics of Royal Oratory.

In July 2016 he was honored at the 2016 Africa Summit for his contribution to education in Ghana and his contribution to Africa’s development.

Kwesi Yankah has been Senior External Advisor, Center for Local Strategies Research, the University of Washington, and a Member of the Policy Working Group, African Presidential Archives and Research Centre, Boston University.

In 1999 he was elected a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra. He served a three-year term as the Honorary Secretary of the Academy from 2003.

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