he was later named as the apostolic administrator for the tamale archdiocese and later became the fourth bishop of tamale on 18 november 1974. he was the first non-religious to hold the position since all his predecessors had belonged to the white fathers. he was promoted to the rank of a metropolitan archbishop upon tamale's elevation to an archdiocese in 1977. from 1982 to 1988 he served as the president of the ghanaian episcopal conference.