Ghana: President Nana Akufo-Addo fires key ministers, including cousin, in major cabinet shake up
CAMBRIDGE, MA - MARCH 29: President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo delivers the Keynote Address for the 2019 10th Annual Africa Development Conference at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government on March 29, 2019 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images)
Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has fired the country’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, Road Minister Kwasi Amoako-Atta, and Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu in a big cabinet reshuffle.
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has been named as the new Minister of Housing, while his deputy Fatimatu Abubakar takes over as the substantive minister.
A press release from the presidency on Wednesday cataloged the sacked ministers, those reassigned, and those newly appointed.
The Finance Minister has come under pressure amid the soaring cost of living and poor economic performance of the West African country before he was eventually relieved of his duties.
President Akufo-Addo has defended his cousin despite the repeated agitation by the opposition and members of parliament to kick him out of his cabinet.
The West African nation has been struggling with its biggest economic crisis in a decade, which came amid soaring public debt-servicing costs.
In 2023, the oil, cocoa, and gold producers secured a bailout program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) worth $3 billion as part of efforts to ease the raging economic troubles.
The forthcoming presidential election in Ghana is expected to be a tight race as candidates are expected to campaign along socio-economic lines to drive support ahead of the poll by the end of 2024.
