Ghana President Picks Investment Banker as Finance Minister

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana appointed investment banker Ken Ofori-Atta as finance minister following elections last month that saw the return to power of the New Patriotic Party.

The announcement was made by President Nana Akufo-Addo on Tuesday in comments on Citi FM radio. Ofori-Atta, 57, held the post of executive chairman of the Accra-based investment bank Databank Financial Services Ltd. for 12 years until 2012 and served as director of fundraising during the NPP’s campaign for the Dec. 7 elections.

Former finance minister Yaw Osafo-Marfo will be part of the government’s economic team, according to the president, who has pledged to reignite growth in the West African nation by boosting the private sector. The economy was forecast to expand 3.3 percent last year, the slowest growth rate in two decades.

Ghana is trying to lower borrowing costs as drops in prices for its main commodity exports, cocoa and oil, strain government revenue and weigh on the economy, which probably expanded at the slowest rate in more than two decades last year, according to the International Monetary Fund.