In September 2011, he succeeded Professor Victor Gadzekpo as the president of the Central University in Ghana.
[5] In March 2017, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo nominated him as a Minister of State in charge of tertiary education.
[8] He told the committee that if confirmed, he would introduce new courses in public universities, as most of their curricula was getting outdated.
He pledged to ensure that universities remained true to their core mandate of knowledge exchange rather than the new paradigm which sought to actively engage in revenue generation ventures.
[9] Yankah is credited with writing the title song for the government's Free SHS policy.
He is the brother of Kojo Yankah, who served as Member of Parliament and a Minister under the government of Jerry John Rawlings of the NDC.