Vetting of Ministers to begin on Friday

Mr. Yaw Osafo Marfo, Senior Minister-designate

Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo; the Senior Minister-nominee, Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister-nominee for National Security, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister-nominee for Finance, and Dominic Nitiwul, Minister-nominee for Defence will on Friday January 20, appear before the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting.

Profile of the Nominees

Yaw Osafo Maafo – Senior Minister Nominee

Yaw Osafo-Maafo, 75, has had an exemplary career as a banker, consultant, politician and a statesman.

He is a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, an Engineer and Project Analyst by profession, and a Fellow of the Ghana Institute of Engineers.

He started his career as an engineer at the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO).

He went on to head and successfully restructure two major development banks – The Bank for Housing and Construction and The National Investment Bank.

He has also worked as a consultant for international development organisations such as the World Bank, African Development Bank (ADB), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) amongst others.

Yaw Osafo-Maafo was a Member of Parliament for Akyem Oda Constituency for three terms and the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning for four years from 2001-2005, a period which saw the dramatic turnaround of the Ghanaian economy.

His achievements were recognised internationally in 2001 when he was adjudged the Best Finance Minister of the year in Africa by the Banker Magazine, a Financial Times Publication.

Along with the Finance Minister of Canada, he was also named the Finance Minister of the Year in November 2001 by the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He served as Minister for Education and Sports from 2005 to 2006, a period which saw the implementation of significant reforms in education and sports sectors, including the introduction of the Capitation Grant.

Ghana for the first time qualified for the World Cup following the reforms under his leadership.

Osafo-Maafo has served on the boards of various financial institutions and corporates, and was the past Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the West African Bankers Association.

He was a founding Deputy Chairman of the Ghana Stock Exchange, and was instrumental in setting up Donewell Insurance Company and the Methodist University College Ghana.

He also represented the Institute of Engineers at the Consultative Assembly that drew up the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.

He is currently the Co-Chairman of the Transition Team, representing His Excellency the President, for the newly elected Government of Ghana.

He is married with four Children.

Albert Kan-Dapaah – National Security Minister Nominee

Albert Kan Dapaah is a Chartered Accountant by profession and a former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana.

He is a former partner in the international accounting firm, Pannell Kerr Forster. He worked in the Electricity Company of Ghana as the Director of Finance for six years before entering the Parliament of Ghana in January 1997.

He was the Minority Spokesman on Mines and Energy from 1997 to 2000. In 2001, he joined the government of President Kufuor and served in the Ministries of Energy, Communications, Interior and Defence between 2001 and 2008.

From 2009 to 2012, he chaired the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament of Ghana. He left Parliament at the end of 2012, and has since been adjunct lecturer in Auditing and the Director of the Centre for Public Accountability at the University of Professional Studies, Accra.

Ken Ofori-Atta – Finance Minister Nominee

Ken Ofori-Atta is 57 years old. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Columbia University in New York, and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

He was the first African to be honoured as a Donaldson Fellow at Yale University in 2010, a John Jay Fellow at Columbia University in 2011 and also a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.

Ken was also the first African to testify at the US Congress Ways and Means Committee to support the AGOA law. He was twice honoured by Price Water House Ghana as one of the Top 5 Most Respected CEOs in Ghana.

Ken was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers on Wall Street in New York, before co-founding the Databank Group (an investment banking firm) in Ghana.

He was the Executive Chairman from 1990 until his retirement on February 14, 2012.

Ken has been Chairman and Board member of the following corporates: Family Ventures and Offices in Ghana; Chairman of Trust Bank Ltd in The Gambia; International Bank of Liberia, Bank of Kigali in Rwanda, Enterprise Life in Ghana, and pan-African Databank AgriFund for SME Agribusiness with investments in Madagascar, Cameroun, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Ken has other business interests in Insurance, Retail Banking, Private Equity, Micro finance, Pharmaceuticals and Real Estate.

He is married to Professor Angela Ofori-Atta of the University of Ghana Medical School, and they have four children.

Dominic Nitiwul – Defence Minister-nominee

Dominic Nitiwul is a 39 year old legislator with 11 years of experience in legislative work.

He was educated in Ghana, Germany and United Kingdom. In Germany he obtained two certificates in Conflict Prevention and Conflict Management from the International Academy for Leadership in 2003 and 2005.

In the United Kingdom he obtained Masters of Business Administration (Finance) from the University of South Wales as well as a Masters of Laws in Corporate Finance Law (LLM Corporate Finance) from the University of Westminster.

He is currently a Member of both the Ghanaian Parliament (MP for Bimbilla) and the Pan-African Parliament.

He has been the Deputy Minority Leader of the Ghanaian Parliament with 4 years of experience.

He has served in various committees in the Ghanaian Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament. These committees include; Finance Committee, Monetary and Financial Affairs Committee, Business Committee, Appointment Committee, Youth and Sports Committee, Roads and Transport Committee as well as Education Committee.

The vetting process is expected to generate a lot of public interest as members of the Committee from the Minority National Democratic Congress would like to “drill’’ the nominees.

He is married with four children.

The Committee is chaired by Joseph Osei-Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

Source: GNA