Pope Francis has named 17 new cardinals among whom there is no Ghanaian.

There are, however, three Africans in the list by the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

This is the third time in three years that Pope Francis is naming cardinals, who will form the conclave to appoint his successor.

Cardinals under the age of 80 vote to choose a pope.

Ghana currently has one cardinal at the Vatican. Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, is currently the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

But he is the second Ghanaians cardinal after Former Archbishop of Tamale Cardinal Peter Dery. By the new appointments, Pope Francis is said to have chosen a third of the College of Cardinals who will appoint his successor.

The new cardinals appointed are the Papal Nuncio to Syria, Mario Zenari (Italy), Dieudonne Nzapalainga (Central African Republic), Carlos Osoro Sierra (Spain), Sergio da Rocha (Brazil), Blase J Cupich (USA) and Patrick D’Rozario (Bangladesh).

The others are Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo (Venezuela), Jozef De Kesel (Belgium), Maurice Piat (Mauritius), Kevin Joseph Farrell (USA), Carlos Aguiar Retes (Mexico) and John Ribat (Papua New Guinea).

The rest are: Joseph William Tobin (USA), Anthony Soter Fernandez (Malaysia), Renato Corti (Italy), Sebastian Koto Khoarai (Lesotho) and Ernest Simoni (Albania).