Accra, January 30, 2017. Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, assumed office as Ghana’s Finance Minister after having been sworn-in on January 27, 2017, by his Excellency the President. He brings to the Ministry over 30 years’ experience in Ghanaian and international financial sector.
2. Hon. Ofori-Atta and twelve other Minister designates were approved by Parliament on Friday, January 27, after going through a successful vetting process by the Appointments Committee of Parliament.
3. The Hon Minister’s immediate priority is to protect the public purse, stabilize Ghana’s macro economy, spearhead anti-corruption, increase revenue and introduce policy initiatives to grow the economy for the private sector to thrive and create jobs. “We will create wealth and improve people’s lives by ensuring economic freedom as the mainstay of the economy. I am committed to cleaning up our public finances, managing the enormous debt that we have inherited in order to create the needed fiscal space, invest in critical infrastructure, and empower the private sector to create jobs”, he said in response to his vision for his tenure.
4. The legacy of the Ministry will be a professional institution with global standards in treasury and risk management to give effect to enforcing the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), he added.
5. He intends to work hard to get the economy growing eventually at double digits through policies and strategies that will increase revenue, reduce waste, control spending, grow the economy to create jobs.
6. The Hon Minister noted that the 3-year IMF programme was needed to achieve fiscal consolidation, though it is presently in a delicate state. “I am committed to an IMF programme which addresses our current predicaments and will ensure that we also meet all the necessary structural benchmarks that may be suggested. As our president has stated, we now need to “get Ghana working again in order to create jobs”.
7. He further assured that he will deliver with God’s guidance on the NPPs Manifesto pledges in spite of the daunting economic challenges. He is optimistic that in the President’s first budget, there will be clear path towards fulfilling the manifesto pledges and opening economic space for the private sector to thrive.
8. The new Minister was a Co-Founder and former Executive Chairman of the Databank Group, (a premier investment banking firm) in Ghana.
9. Prior to co-founding Databank in 1990, the Hon Minister was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers on Wall Street in New York. He has over the past 25-years since he returned from New York, had business interests in Insurance, Retail Banking, Private Equity, Pharmaceuticals and Real Estate.
10. He went to Achimota School; received a BA in Economics from Columbia University in New York and an MBA from the Yale School of Management END.
