Boakye Agyarko Becomes First Aspirant To Pick NPP’s Flagbearership Nomination Forms

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has opened nominations, as scheduled, for interested members to pick forms to contest its presidential primaries.

Nominations were opened on Friday, May 26 and scheduled to close on Saturday, June 24.

On Friday, supporters of some key aspirants were at the party’s headquarters in Accra to pick the nomination forms for their idols.

Former Minister of Energy and policy advisor, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko is the first to pick up the the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential nomination forms for the party’s primaries

 

 

Nomination forms were also picked up for former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko by a team led by one of his aides, Benjamin Armah.

Benjamin Armah remarked that Boakye Agyarko is the NPP’s best bet to win the 2024 elections.

“We are very confident that this is a man God has prepared among all the men in the NPP to succeed our current President Akufo-Addo. We believe that with his capabilities and as we tout him, the engine of public policy in the NPP, he will be able to bring hope to the ordinary Ghanaian. He has gone round all the 16 regions, and we are touching base with them, which is why you don’t see us making a whole lot of noise. By the grace of the Almighty God, he will be part of the top five. We have all the men to lead the NPP, but among them, Boakye Agyarko is the best,” Benjamin Ashitey Armah said.

“I think everybody has a strategy and the team of Boakye Agyarko also have our own strategy and we are very sure of emerging victorious,” Spokesperson Dr Benjamin Ashitey told journalists after picking the forms.

“We don’t mind the noises we are hearing around, we have a strategy and we are keeping to our strategy.”

 

Profile of Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko

 

 

Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko is a Ghanaian economist and politician. He was the vice president of the Bank of New York. He was the former Minister for Energy in Ghana.

Agyarko in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to Kwasi Agyarko. His father was a merchant and United Party activist from Jamase, Ashanti Region and his mother was Jane Ladze Padi from Krobo Odumase in the Eastern Region.

Agyarko attended the K. O. Methodist Primary School in Ashtown and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Primary School in Kumasi. He then proceeded to Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast for his secondary education from where he had both his GCE Ordinary Level and GCE Advanced Level certified. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Ghana, Legon.

He immigrated to the United States of America as a political refugee. While there he obtained an Advanced Professional Certificate in Banking from the American Institute of Banking and a Master of Business Administration in Financial Economics from Pace University, New York.

After graduating from the University of Ghana in 1980, Agyarko did his mandatory national service at the Ghana Union Nation of Students as the National Coordinator.

When the national service ended in 1981, he was employed as a junior economist with Management and Investment Consultants in Accra. He worked there till 1984 where he was forced to flee Ghana due to an attempt on his life.

After graduating from the University of Ghana in 1980, Agyarko did his mandatory national service at the Ghana Union Nation of Students as the National Coordinator. When the national service ended in 1981, he was employed as a junior economist with Management and Investment Consultants in Accra. He worked there till 1984 where he was forced to flee Ghana due to an attempt on his life.

After a failed coup d’etat led by Lance Corporal Halidu Giwa and Sergeant Abdul Malik, the military high command assumed that he was part of coup plotters. This was due to his high political activism and criticism of the economic policies adopted by the country’s military leaders led by Jerry John Rawlings. He was arrested by men from the Ghana Armed Forces who took him to the Air Force Base at Burma Camp in Accra.

He was shot at the base and sent to the 37 Military Hospital morgue. At the morgue, a nurse realized that he was not dead and rushed him to the emergency services where he was operated upon by Henry Koku Akpalu. After the surgery, he fled the country through the help of a friend, Monsieur Le Veloire, and his two sisters. Agyarko emigrated to the United States as a political refugee and enrolled at Pace University.

After graduating from Pace University, he was employed by the Bank of New York, the oldest bank in the United States. He spent over twenty years at the bank and worked at senior levels in various departments of the Bank.

The positions he held included Operations Management and Analysis, Product Development, Global Network Managements, International Banking and Asset Management, and the Year 2000 (Y2K) Management Group.

He had oversight responsibilities of various sectors and departments notably in Trade, Finance, Loan Syndications, Asset Securitization, and Structured Finance. He was the principal negotiator on the setting up of the Bank of New York in Mexico. While working in New York he became a member of the American Economic Association and an Associate Member of the American Institute of Bankers.

He rose through the ranks of the bank and became Vice President and Head of Global Network Management for the Americans in the Investment Management and Services Division. He left the bank after 22 years so he could contest elections in Ghana. While in the US he wrote a weekly column in The Statesman Newspaper titled Letter from America from 1993 through 1998.

Agyarko entered politics at an early age and was the National Coordinator for the Ghana Union of Students and Youth Associations from 1979 to 1980. He was a founding member of the New Patriotic Party in 1992. Within the party, he has held several positions including chairman of The Danquah Busia Club of North America, and briefly served as a Trustee of the Busia Foundation.

He was elected the coordinator for the New Patriotic Party in North America. Agyarko was appointed National Campaign manager of the New Patriotic Party in the 2012 Presidential election. He was appointed the Policy Adviser to the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party during the 2016 election.

In January 2017, Agyarko was appointed the minister of energy in the Akufo-Addo administration. He was approved by parliament in February 2017. As the Energy Minister, Agyarko has supervisory responsibility for fifteen major agencies under the ministry.

Prior to Agyarko’s ministerial confirmation in February 2017, he was accused by Mahama Ayariga of the parliamentary appointment committee of bribing members of the minority to facilitate his approval as a Minister of energy. Ayariga reported on Radio Gold, that Agyarko through Muntaka Mubarak, the minority chief whip, had tried to influence the decision of the Appointments Committee of Parliament by giving each minority member a bribe.

The Speaker of Parliament, Aaron Mike Oquaye set up an ad-hoc parliamentary committee to investigate the matter After the investigation, the Joe Ghartey committee exonerated Agyarko but cited and found Ayariga guilty of being in contempt of parliament for making false allegations against a colleague and bringing the parliament into disrepute.

Ayariga was made to render an apology on the floor of parliament and warned to be mindful of his actions in the future. After his ministerial appointment was approved, Ayariga publicly praised Agyarko for his track record asserting that his nomination was approved on merit.

In May 2017, President Nana Akufo-Addo named Boakye Agyarko as part of nineteen ministers who would form his cabinet. The names of the 19 ministers have been submitted to the Parliament of Ghana and announced by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Prof. Mike Ocquaye. As a Cabinet minister, Agyarko is part of the inner circle of the president and is to aid in key decision-making activities in the country.

 

 

 

 

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