Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta speaks during a news conference in Accra, Ghana December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Cooper InveenACCRA, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Ghana’s president has 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.
The office of President Nana Akufo-Addo said that Ofori-Atta would be replaced by Mohammed Amin Adam, currently the minister of state at the finance ministry and previously deputy energy minister responsible for the petroleum sector.
It did not give a reason for the change.
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, announced on Wednesday, comes ahead of a December election in which Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia, also an economist, will be seeking to distance himself from 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.
source; ghanaweb
