Asamoah-Okyere heads Biosafety Authority
President Akufo-Addo has appointed Kwame Dei Asamoah-Okyere, as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Biosafety Authority (NBA).
This was in accordance with the advice of the Governing Board of the NBA given in consultation with the Public Services Commission.
Mr. Asamoah-Okyere succeeds the NBA’s inaugural Chief Executive Officer, Eric Amaning Okoree, whose eight-year tenure ended in March 2024.
Mr. Okoree is credited with laying the foundation for the NBA’s regulatory oversight and advancing biosafety in the country.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Asamoah-Okyere was the Director of Business Development and International Partnerships at the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) where he served for over two decades.
He brings with him a wealth of experience in good regulatory practices in the regulation of food and medical products, strategy development, business development, international partnerships, planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation and quality management systems.
During the past six years, Mr. Asamoah-Okyere has played a crucial role in improving the FDA’s operations and revenue performance, by spearheading digital transformation efforts and building important local and international partnerships to strengthen institutional and technical capabilities in regulating food and medical products.
Mr. Asamoah-Okyere’s affiliation with the NBA dates back to 2012, when he served on the first technical advisory committee which reviewed the first five confined field trial applications.
He was later appointed to the inaugural Governing Board, of the NBA where he played a pivotal role in shaping the Authority’s organisational framework, strategic direction, and scheme of service from 2015 to 2017.
In 2015, he led a national multi-stakeholder consultation that included Civil Society Groups and Anti-GMO activists to build consensus on a national position on the labelling of Genetically Modified Organisms for Food, Feed and Processing (GMO-FFP) in preparation for the first GMO event approval in Ghana. Guidelines on the labelling of same have since been published by the FDA.