President Akufo-Addo has replaced Deputy Finance Minister Abena Osei-Asare in a latest reshuffle, officials at the Jubilee House have confirmed.
She will now serve as Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, a role played by the current Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam.
Dr Alexander Ampaabeng, the NPP 2024 parliamentary candidate for the Juaboso constituency in the Western North Region, has also been appointed as the deputy minister for finance.
The presidency did not give a reason for the change.
Ofori-Atta’s removal
On 14 February 2024, Ghana’s president replaced finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta in a cabinet reshuffle after criticism of the ex-banker’s leadership during the West African country’s worst economic crisis in a generation.
Ofori-Atta has been overseeing Ghana’s debt restructuring efforts after the West African gold, oil and cocoa producer defaulted on most of its external debt in December 2022.
Inflation rose above 50% that year and the local cedi currency plummeted. Ofori-Atta faced calls for his resignation from street protesters and both opposition and ruling party MPs, which he survived.
The move to dismiss him comes ahead of a December election in which Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia, also an economist, will be seeking to distance himself from the country’s recent economic woes as he runs for president.
“There is a feeling that doing this… will create a much-needed new narrative for (the Vice President’s) slow-building campaign,” said Bright Simons, an analyst at Accra-based think tank IMANI Africa.
He said that overall, the reshuffle did not appear to signal any clear shift in political strategy.
Akufo-Addo chose Ofori-Atta, a relative of his, as finance minister when he became head of state in 2017, pledging to create jobs, fight poverty and boost economic growth by cutting taxes and red tape.
Ghana’s economy has started to recover since the government last year secured a $3 billion loan programme with the International Monetary Fund, and in January reached a deal to restructure $5.4 billion of loans with its official creditors.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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