SPECIAL REPORT: The Six New Faces In Akufo-Addo’s Second Cabinet
President Nana Akufo-Addo’s new executive is almost complete, with the government expected to complete the process of appointing deputy ministers in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the presidency has released a 19-person ministerial composition of the cabinet.
The list was announced on Thursday afternoon as Jubilee House looks to begin the second part of the year with the full complement of the highest deliberative and decision-making body in the Executive.
A few faces and portfolios, which were in the first, will not be in the president’s second cabinet, at least not from the start.
The 1992 constitution of Ghana grants the President the power to put together a cabinet of not fewer than 10 and not more than 19 ministers.
Despite this, presidents have been known to invite other ministers to sit in cabinet meetings since the law grants that possibility if said ministers are vital to the meeting.
The President and the Vice-President are also members of the cabinet.
If the President is unavailable, the Vice-President hosts the meetings of the most powerful deliberative body in the Executive.
Six new faces, all men, will be at the table when the cabinet next meets.
The Ghana Report brings you summaries of what each man brings.
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Godfred Yeboah Dame
Dame will be the youngest Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in the Fourth Republic at 42.
Initially, rumours among Ghanaians revealed that many thought he was the youngest ever to hold the position in the country’s history. That is false.
The youngest ever Ghanaian to be Attorney General was Augustus “Goosie” Tanoh, who did it in 1988 at age 32.
Odame will be assuming an enviable position as the government’s topmost law enforcer, just as the president who appointed him once did.
But the new minister comes into this new role with the experience of being an understudy to Gloria Akuffo in the last government.
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Samuel Abdulai Jinapor
For many years, Jinapor was known as a personal aide to Nana Akufo-Addo before he became president. But Jinapor brings more than his familiarity with the president to his new role as Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.
He was identified as a student leader with promise some 15 years ago, reportedly by former minister Richard Anane.
A lawyer by profession, Jinapor assumed a role in 2017 as a Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidency while he was only 33. These days, he is also the Member of Parliament for the people of the Damongo Constituency.
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Francis Asenso-Boakye
Under Asenso-Boakye, the Ministry of Works and Housing makes a comeback into the league of cabinet ministries.
The 43-year-old minister is also the MP for Bantama in the Ashanti Region.
Asenso-Boakye is a project manager and development specialist by training and has over a decade of experience working in the private and public sectors. Among his places of work include Global Media Alliance and the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare.
The new Works and Housing minister cut his teeth in the professional world in the United States. But when he returned to Ghana, he was appointed a political assistant to candidate Akufo-Addo before the 2016 election.
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Ibrahim Mohammed Awal
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture was overseen by Catharine Afeku at the constitution of the last cabinet in 2017. The new man in charge is Ibrahim Mohammed Awal.
Awal had been a Minister of Business Development since 2017, but the ministry is no more due to a lot of public criticism over its establishment. However, Awal was known to the Ghanaian public before he was appointed as a minister in 2017.
He was formerly the advertising manager and later CEO at Graphic Communications and a managing director at Chasing Petroleum.
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Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu
With Alban Bagbin’s ascension to the role of Speaker of Parliament, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is the longest and currently serving Member of Parliament in the Ghanaian legislative body.
The 64-year-old has been an MP since 1997.
His experience will serve him well as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. He has actually held the role since 2017 but is only now joining the cabinet.
This appointment to the cabinet may be understood in terms of the ruling government’s strategies in a parliament where it holds a very slim majority.
Mensah-Bonsu is an urban planner by profession but has also been identified as a career politician owing to his longevity in national politics.
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Yaw Osei Adutwum
The other man on this list who assumes the substantive role in his ministry from the last Akufo-Addo government is Yaw Osei Adutwum at the Ministry of Education. He deputised for the minister there from 2017 until the last election.
The 57-year-old Adutwum is an educationist who has experience in administration in educational management and teaching in classrooms. He is also the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe.
The minister will be seen as one of the few names whose political appointments fairly matches their professional experiences.