Ghana’s longest serving Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey dies at Age 78

Prof. Botchwey is said to have died today 19 November 2022, at the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital where he has been the last few days seeking medical care. Born on the 3 September 1944, Dr Kwesi Botchwey was 78 at the time of his death.

He will go down in the history books of Ghana as the longest serving Finance Minister. He served in office alongside Ghana’s longest serving head of state, the late former President, Jerry John Rawlings.

The late economist received his secondary school education at the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School in Ghana. Dr Botchwey held an LL.B. from the University of Ghana, LL.M from Yale Law School, and a doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School.

He taught at the University of Zambia, the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and the University of Ghana. Other notable previous assignments of Dr Botchwey were advisor to the World Bank on the 1997 World Development Report.

He was among others, a member and Chairman of IMF‘s Group of Independent Experts who conducted the first ever external evaluation of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility, an advisor to the UNDP‘s UN Special Initiative on Africa and an advisor to the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).

By Wilberforce Asare ||Asaaseradio