Minister of Finance Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta begins work today

Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s Finance Minister after having been sworn-in by the President his Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo – Addo on January 27, 2017, has assumed office.

His assumption of office today, comes after he and twelve other Minister designates were approved by Parliament last week, after going through a successful vetting process by the Appointments Committee of Parliament.

Hon. Ofori Atta brings to the Ministry, over 30 years’ experience in the Ghanaian and international financial sector.

In a statement, from the Ministry of Finance public relations unit and copied to the thebftonline.com, Hon. Ofori Atta after his swearing in have indicated that his immediate priority is to protect the public purse, stabilize Ghana’s macro economy, spearhead anti-corruption, increase revenue and introduce policy initiatives to grow the economy for the private sector to thrive and create jobs, in response to his vision for his tenure

“We will create wealth and improve people’s lives by ensuring economic freedom as the mainstay of the economy. I am committed to cleaning up our public finances, managing the enormous debt that we have inherited in order to create the needed fiscal space, invest in critical infrastructure, and empower the private sector to create jobs.”

“The legacy of the Ministry will be a professional institution with global standards in treasury and risk management to give effect to enforcing the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA),” he added.

According to the statement, the finance minister intends to work hard to get the economy growing eventually at double digits through policies and strategies that will increase revenue, reduce waste, control spending, grow the economy to create jobs.

He is also further quoted to have stated that, the 3-year IMF programme was needed to achieve fiscal consolidation, though it is presently in a delicate state.

“I am committed to an IMF programme which addresses our current predicaments and will ensure that we also meet all the necessary structural benchmarks that may be suggested. As our president, has stated, we now need to get Ghana working again in order to create jobs”.

On the NPPs Manifesto pledges, Hon. Ofori Atta assured that, he will deliver them with God’s guidance in spite of the daunting economic challenges that confronts the country.

He is optimistic that in the President’s first budget, there will be clear path towards fulfilling the manifesto pledges and opening economic space for the private sector to thrive, the statement said.

Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta was a Co-Founder and former Executive Chairman of the Databank Group, (a premier investment banking firm) in Ghana.

Prior to co-founding Databank in 1990, the Hon Minister was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers on Wall Street in New York. He has over the past 25-years since he returned from New York, had business interests in Insurance, Retail Banking, Private Equity, Pharmaceuticals and Real Estate.

Regarding education, he went to Achimota School; received a BA in Economics from Columbia University in New York and an MBA from the Yale School of Management