The office of President Nana Akufo-Addo has replaced finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta in a cabinet restructuring after receiving several criticism about the ex-banker’s leadership during the country’s worst economic crises in a generation.
Akufo-Addo had said that Ofori-Atta would be replaced by Mohammed Amin Adam, who is currently the minister of state at the finance ministry and had previously served as the deputy energy minister responsible for the petroleum sector.
Ofori-Atta was chosen to oversee 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 fell. Unsurprisingly, Ofori-Atta faced calls for his step down from street protesters and from both opposition and ruling party MPs, which he wades past.
The action to dismiss him was announced on Wednesday, and is coming ahead of a December election in which Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia who is an economist, will be seeking to distance himself from country’s recent economic woes as he runs for the presidential seat.
Akufo-Addo had chosen Ofori-Atta, a relative of his, to be the finance minister when he became head of state in 2017, promising to provide jobs, combat poverty and encourage economic growth by cutting taxes and red tape.
Ghana’s economy has seen improvement since the government secured a $3 billion loan program in 2023 with the International Monetary Fund, and consequently reached a deal to restructure $5.4 billion of loans with its official creditors in January 2024.
