Mahamudu Bawumia | |
|---|---|
 Bawumia attending the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board, 64th session, on 13 September 2017 | |
| Vice President of Ghana | |
| Assumed office 7 January 2017 | |
| President | Nana Akufo-Addo |
| Preceded by | Kwesi Amissah-Arthur |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 October 1963 Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana |
| Political party | New Patriotic Party |
| Spouse | Samira Ramadan |
| Relations | Mumuni Bawumia (father) Mariama Bawumia (mother) |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Buckingham University Lincoln College, Oxford[1] Simon Fraser University |
| Occupation | Economist, Politician |
Mahamudu Bawumia (born 7 October 1963) is a Ghanaian economist and former central banker who serves as the 5th Vice President of Ghana in the 4th Ghanaian Republic.[2][3][4][5][6] He assumed office on 7th January 2017 as Vice President of Ghana.[7][8]
Mahamudu Bawumia is an economist, banker, and vice president of Ghana.[9][10]
Bawumia was a Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, until his nomination as the vice presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2008, standing alongside presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo. He also ran as the NPP vice-presidential candidate in the 2012 general elections and was the lead witness for the petitioners in the 2012/2013 Presidential Election Petition which challenged the declaration of John Mahama as winner of the election.[11][12][13][14][15] He is married to Samira Ramadan with whom they have four children.[16][17][18]
Bawumia was born on Monday, 7 October 1963 in Tamale, Ghana to Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia and Hajia Mariama Bawumia.[19][20]
Bawumia's father, Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia was a teacher, lawyer and politician, a Mamprugu Royal and Chief of the Kpariga Traditional Area at the time of his death in September, 2002.
He was a founding member of the Northern Peoples' Party alongside Chief S. D. Dombo, Chief Abeifa Karbo, Yakubu Tali, the Tolon Naa, and J. A. Braimah, Kabachewura.[21][22]
The Northern Peoples Party, together with the National Liberation Movement and other opposition political parties, later merged into the United Party, the forebear of the current New Patriotic Party.[23]
Alhaji Bawumia served under various Ghanaian governments in various capacities, including member of the Northern Territories Council, the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly, a Member of Parliament of the First Republic, Northern Regional Minister, and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.[24]
Alhaji Bawumia was awarded the high national honour of Member of the Order of the Star of Ghana in March 1999. He served as chairman of the Council of State, under the presidency of J. J. Rawlings from, 1993 to 2000 in the 4th republic.[25][26]
In September 2021, his mother, Hajia Mariama Bawumia, died in Accra, at age 81, and was buried later beside her husband in Kperiga, near Walewale in the Northeast Region.[27][28][29][30]
Born into a large family, Mahamudu Bawumia is the twelfth of his father's 18 children and the second of his mother's five.[31]
Mahamudu Bawumia attended the Sakasaka Primary school in Tamale,[32] and gained admission to Tamale Secondary School in 1975. After graduating from Tamale Secondary School, he went to the United Kingdom where he studied banking and obtained the Chartered Institute of Bankers Diploma (ACIB). He was President of the Ghana United Nations Students’ Association (GUNSA) in 1981. He took a First Class Honours Degree in Economics at Buckingham University in 1987.
He then obtained a master's degree in Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics at the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1995.[33] His areas of specialization include Macroeconomics, International Economics, Development Economics and Monetary Policy. He has numerous publications.
From 1988 to 1990, Bawumia worked as a lecturer in Monetary Economics, and International Finance at the Emile Woolf College of Accountancy in London, England. He also served as an economist at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. Bawumia also previously served as Resident Representative of the African Development Bank in Zimbabwe.
Between 1996 and 2000, Bawumia served as an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, USA, where he also received the Young Researcher Award in 1998. He was listed in "Who is Who Among America's Teachers' in 1999. He has also published two books on monetary policy and economic development.[34]
Bawumia returned to Ghana in 2000 to work as an economist at the Bank of Ghana. He rose from Senior Economist to Head of Department, and subsequently as Special Assistant to the Governor of the Bank. President John Kufuor appointed Bawumia as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana in June 2006.
At the Bank of Ghana, Mahamudu Bawumia:
Shortly after the 2008 election Bawumia resigned as Deputy Governor at the Bank of Ghana.
Mahamudu Bawumia was running mate to the New Patriotic Party candidate in the 2008 elections, Nana Akufo-Addo.[35][36][37] The NPP increased its share of the vote compared to 2004 in all the three Northern Regions, in both the first and second round.[38]
Bawumia served as a consultant to the Economic Commission of Africa between February and March 2009. Between April and October 2009, he was a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia Liu Centre for Global Studies and UBC Fisheries Centre.[38]
In October 2009, he was appointed as a Fellow of the International Growth Centre (IGC), a research institute based jointly at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Oxford University that provides advice on economic growth to governments of developing countries, specifically serving as an IGC Team Member for Sierra Leone. He also served as an advisor to the Central Bank of Sierra Leone on the redesigning of the organizational structure of the bank and its monetary policy framework.[39]
Between October 2009 and October 2010, he was a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford. In January 2011, Bawumia was appointed Resident Representative of the African Development Bank for Zimbabwe by the African Development Bank. He served in this position until reappointed as the Vice-Presidential Candidate to Nana Akufo-Addo on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party for Ghana's 2012 Presidential Election.[39]
Bawumia was re-nominated as the Vice-Presidential Candidate to Nana Akufo-Addo for the 2012 General Elections in March 2012.[40]
The party won 10 seats in the Northern Region including Yendi, Walewale, Yagaba – Kubore, Bunkpurugu, Bimbilla, Chereponi, Kpandai, Tatale – Sanguli, Tolon and Zabzugu. It also won the Nabdam and Talensi Constituencies in the Upper East Region. Overall, Nana Akufo-Addo and Bawumia lost the presidential elections to John Dramani Mahama.[41]
Nana Akuffo Addo appointed Bawumia as his running mate in the 2016 presidential election.[42][43]
On Friday, June 16, 2023, Bawumia filed his nomination to contest in the NPP Presidential primaries.[44] As part of the Presidential primaries, Bawumia picked the 10th position after balloting for the selection of five contest for the final selection of the Presidential Candidate for the NPP in the 2024 election.[45] Bawumia, on August 26, 2023, won the super delegates congress election by the New Patriotic Party with 68%, beating 9 other candidates in the build up to the party’s national delegates congress to elect their flagbearer.[46]
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has been elected to lead the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for Election 2024 as flagbearer. Bawumia won NPP presidential primary with 61.43% of total valid votes cast which happened on November 4, 2023 at 276 constituencies across the country and the Party Headquarters, Asylum Down, Accra.[47][48][49]
The Vice President is known for several philanthropic works. In October 2020, he formally commissioned an ultramodern mosque built and fully funded by him for use by the people of Prang in the Bono East area.[50] Dr. Bawumia had earlier in June same year settle over nearly 6 decades land lease arrears for the Kumasi Central Mosque.[51]
In September 2021, Bawumia pledged GHS 1500 monthly stipend to Psalm Adjeteyfio to take care of his rent and upkeep.[52] In May 2022, Dr. Bawumia donated an amount of GHs 20,000.00 to a taxi driver who returned missing GHs 8,400.00 to the owner.[53] In October 2021, Dr. Bawumia celebrated his 58th birthday with inmates of the Weija Leprosarium.[54] in October 2022, he celebrated his birthday with cured lepers from the Weija Leprosarium[55] and in October 2023, he celebrated his 60th birthday with the orphans at the Kumasi Childrens’ Home.[56]
The Digital Ghana Agenda, led by the Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia has brought enormous transformation to the country, which include; [58][59]
