Kwabena Duffuor

Hon. Kwabena Duffuor
Finance Minister
In office January 2009 – January 2013
President	John Atta Mills
Preceded by	Anthony Akoto Osei
Succeeded by	Seth Terkper
Governor, Bank of Ghana
In office July 1997 – September 2001
President	Jerry Rawlings
Preceded by	G.K. Agama
Succeeded by	Paul Acquah
Personal details
Born	1946 (age 77–78)
Nationality	Ghanaian
Political party	National Democratic Congress
Children	5
Alma mater	University of Ghana Syracuse University
Profession	Banker, lecturer, politician

Kwabena Duffuor was the Finance Minister of Ghana. He served as the governor of the Bank of Ghana. He was named as one of the four best Central Bank Governors in the World at an IMF/World Bank meeting in 1999. He is a Fellow of the Akuafo Hall, University of Ghana, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Duffuor is the founder and chairman of HODA Holdings, a business entity comprising Insurance, Banking, Real Estates, Farming, Mining and Media. He is also the founder and president of the Institute for Fiscal Studies in Ghana, a non-profit think-tank providing economic advocacy and training which he established in March, 2013. He is also the founder of uniBank which controversially collapsed in 2018.

Early life and education

In 1958, Kwabena Duffuor entered Prempeh College in Kumasi for his secondary school education through the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board scholarship, where he obtained both his O-Level and A-Level certificates in 1962 and 1964 respectively. He proceeded to the University of Ghana where he graduated in 1968 with a B. Sc. degree in Economics. And after working briefly with the Volta River Authority, he started his career with the Ghana Commercial Bank in 1969. Between the years 1973 and 1979, while working with GCB Bank, Duffuor obtained a USAID and African Graduate Fellowship Awards to pursue further studies at Syracuse University in New York. He obtained an MBA in Finance and Banking, an MA in economics in 1975 and a PhD in 1979, all from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at the Syracuse University. He was also awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy in International Finance in 1979 at the same university.

After working briefly as an economist at the IMF in Washington, Duffuor returned to Ghana and combined his banking work at Ghana Commercial Bank with Lecturing in Economics and Finance at the University of Ghana between 1980 and 1991.

Career

Duffuor started work with the Ghana Commercial Bank in 1969, where he rose to become chief economist and head of research department. Between 1982 and 1991, Duffuor worked full-time as a banker. He also worked as a part-time lecturer in economics, finance and banking at the Economics Department and the School of Administration at the University of Ghana. He was appointed an external examiner in finance from 1985 at the university. In 1995, he became deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana. In July 1997, President Jerry Rawlings appointed Duffuor as the governor of the Bank of Ghana. He held this position till his four-year term ended in September 2001.

In July 1997, he was appointed governor of the bank; driving a range of reforms in the bank, including the conversion of Ghana Commercial Bank London Branch into a UK incorporated Bank – Ghana International Bank, plc in March 1998. In November 1997, an honorary fellowship was conferred on Dr Duffuor by the Institute of Bankers in Ghana for his loyal and meritorious service to the banking industry. He was nominated Ghana's man of the year by the readers of The Independent newspaper.

Politics

Kwabena Duffuor was a member of the Convention People's Party. He was appointed as finance minister in John Atta Mills's National Democratic Congress government in February 2009.

Duffour filed a nomination form in 2023 to run against John Dramani Mahama as the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, but he later withdrew from the campaign due to concerns about the neutrality and transparency of the party's election process.

Awards

In July 2015, Duffuor received an Exceptional Achievement Award from GUBA at an event that took place at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, London. In September 2015, he was awarded a Special Music Pillar Honour award by MUSIGA at an event which took place at the Banquet Hall, State House. In recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the development of this country, the Republic of Ghana conferred on Dr Kwabena Duffuor the State honour of Companion of the Order of the Volta (CV) in December 2015.

Controversies and allegations

Duffuor was a founder of uniBank, a defunct major Ghanaian bank. The bank was set up in 1997 at a time when he was Governor of the BoG. The bank was put into administration by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in 2018 and then consolidated with four other defunct banks during Ghana's banking crisis. At the time of its administration the bank was led by his son Dr Kwabena Duffuor jr.

In taking over the bank, the BoG cited weak supervisory standards, weak operations and persistent liquidity shortfalls and breaches in its cash reserve requirements as reasons for taking over the bank. At the time of its administration, it was reported that it had a negative capital adequacy of -24% at December 2017 and had been reliant on more than 2.2 billion cedis (US$498m at the time) of liquidity support from the BoG to continue to operate.

The bank's Receivers subsequently sued Duffuor, HODA, his son and a number of others for the return of 5 billion cedis in assets. The Receivers allege that Directors and shareholders of the bank engaged in illegal transactions by giving out unlawful loans as well as illegal acquisition of assets in the name of related interests.

Duffuor has attempted to regain control of the bank by countersuing the Ghana Government alleging the bank had been effectively expropriated. The lawsuit disclosed that almost all of uniBank's loan book was classed as impaired. His son has also sued the administrator KPMG and its staff alleging deceit and that they aimed to enrich themselves by deliberately misleading the Government into collapsing the bank.

See also

• List of Mills government ministers