AT first sight, he comes across as a humble and open person who exudes a lot of confidence and brilliance.
Meeting him for the first time, one is bound to conclude that the 45-year-old Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, now running mate of the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, appears shy.
At his Labone residence last Thursday, when news of his endorsement as running mate to Nana Akufo-Addo was yet to sink in, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was obviously overwhelmed and could only pace up and down, occasionally shaking hands or hugging the wife and his little girl or close relations who had gathered around him. Dr Bawumia is married to Samira with whom he has two boys and a girl.
He would not utter a word to the press, at least not when he was coming to terms with the reality that he could become a potential Vice-President of the country.
Born into a large family, Mahamudu Bawumia, is the 12th of his father’s 18 children and the second of his mother’s five.
As a precocious and affable child who pestered adults with too many incisive questions, growing up in Tamale was a huge experience for him, I am told. He had a keen interest in sports and represented the then Tamale Secondary School in Table Tennis in inter-schools sporting competitions.
His leadership skills and abilities, according to close associates, were noted earlier as a young boy who was appointed as the Wemah House Prefect during his Sixth Form at Tamale Secondary School. Mahamudu Bawumia was also President of the Ghana United Nations Students Association (GUNSA) for the year 1981.
Born on October 7, 1963 in Tamale to the late Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia, former Chairman of the Council of State (1992 – 2000) and Hajia Mariama Bawumia, he enjoys Tuo Zaafi, fufu and other local dishes and spends a lot of time with his family. As a practising Muslim, many call him Alhaji, even though he is not, because he has not been to Mecca. He, however, enjoys visiting the gym a lot to keep in shape.
Dr Bawumia’s father, the late Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia, was a teacher, lawyer and veteran politician who devoted virtually all his life to public service. His mother, Hajia Mariama Bawumia, is a native of Kpasenkpe in the West Mamprusi District. She was a brilliant student, and was one of the first northern female students to gain admission to the prestigious Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast.
Dr Bawumia’s late father, Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia, was a Mamprugu Royal and Paramount Chief of the Kperiga Traditional Area before he passed away in September 2002. He was a founding member of the Northern People’s Party, alongside such political stalwarts as Chief S. D. Dombo, Yakubu Tali, the Tolon Naa, and J. A. Braimah, Kabachewura. The Northern People’s Party, together with the National Liberation Movement and other opposition political parties later metamorphosed into the United Party.
Dr Bawumia’s political pedigree in the Danquah-Busia tradition goes back to the very foundations of the United Party from which the New Patriotic Party draws inspiration. He is an economist and banker of international distinction and repute.
With the country’s oil find, he is expected to lead the national economic team to manage the resources for the benefit of the country, his close associates told the Graphic.
Mahamudu Bawumia attended the Sakasaka Primary school in Tamale, and gained admission to Tamale Secondary School in 1975, where he quickly established a strong reputation for his exceptional academic performance. He was awarded the prize for Best Overall Student in Form 3. He continued to excel in his studies, and dazzled his audiences with his superb debating skills as a member of the Tamale Secondary School Debating Team, which was adjudged the best in the Northern and Upper regions competition in 1981.
After completing Tamale Secondary School, Mahamudu proceeded to the United Kingdom where he took professional banking studies and obtained the Chartered Institute of Bankers Diploma (ACIB) with distinctions in Banking Law, Monetary Economics, Accounting and Banking within the rather short period of 18 months!
He subsequently took undergraduate study at Buckingham University where he topped his record of academic brilliance with a First Class Honours Degree in Economics in 1987. He subsequently gained admission to Oxford University, Lincoln College, where, one year later, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Economics. He pursued his doctoral studies in economics at the prestigious Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he obtained a Ph.D in Economics in 1995. His areas of specialisation include Macroeconomics, International Economics, Development Economics and Monetary Policy. He has numerous publications to his credit.
From 1988 to 1990, Dr 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 DC, USA.
Between 1996 and 2000, Dr Bawumia served as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University, Texas, USA, where he also received the Young Researcher Award in 1998. As a result of Dr Bawumia’s commitment to excellence in teaching, he made the list of “Who Is Who Among America’s Teachers?” in 1999.
Dr Bawumia returned to Ghana in 2000 to work as an economist at the Bank of Ghana. He rose through the ranks from Senior Economist to Head of Department, and subsequently as Special Assistant to the Governor of the Bank. His Excellency President J.A. Kufuor appointed Dr Bawumia as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana in June 2006.
Since joining the Bank of Ghana, Dr Bawumia has established himself as a skilled policy maker with a reputation for being a doer, a hands-on technocrat and a professional with a remarkable ability to successfully handle complex issues.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s professional accomplishments include the following:
As head of the Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Department, he implemented the analytical framework that guides monetary policy and the workings of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of Ghana. The inflation targeting framework established was successful in reducing inflation from over 40 cent in 2000 to 10.2 per cent by 2007 (i.e., before the recent oil price shock) while maintaining a relatively stable exchange rate.
He was instrumental in designing and implementing policy initiatives such as the abolition of the secondary reserve requirements and the opening up of the banking sector to competition. This has resulted in a major increase in the availability of credit to the private sector from 12.5 per cent of GDP in 2001 to 28.5 per cent of GDP today.
He led the Bank of Ghana’s technical negotiation team and has been part of the government team that negotiated with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund since 2001 through HIPC and PRGF. Partly as a result of these negotiations, Ghana has, for the first time since 1983, successfully ended its dependence on IMF assistance and this allows Ghana to pursue more independent policies.
He served as a member of the government’s technical negotiating team on the HIPC Paris Club and Completion Point Negotiations. Ghana completed the HIPC process successfully with significant debt relief of close to $4 billion.
He was a member of the government team to negotiate the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Compact with the US Government.
He was responsible for drafting the financial sector component of the MCA Compact. The MCA Compact yielded financing for $547 million of projects.
He was a member of the Government’s Technical Team on the deregulation of the petroleum sector. Successful deregulation has subsequently saved the government over $700 million over the last three years.
As Chairman of the Capital Markets Committee, he was responsible for the strategy for accessing the international capital markets with a debut $750 million, which was four times oversubscribed.
He was a member of the government’s team that undertook the successful road show to market Ghana to foreign investors. The bond proceeds have been critical in undertaking investments in the energy sector and have also been earmarked for the Kumasi-Accra dual carriageway as well as the Western railway Line. Ghana won the Euromoney Award for best bond issue for Emerging Markets.
He was part of the team that designed and implemented the successful redenomination of the cedi which has been hailed globally. Through this process, the cedi has been considerably strengthened as Ghanaians have found renewed confidence in their currency.
He played a key role in the design and implementation of the e-zwich common platform for all banks, savings and loans companies and rural banks. This common platform will result in inter-operability across different financial institutions. The first nationwide technologically-driven platform for monetary transactions across the country, the e-zwich has put Ghana on the map as a world leader in the application of biometric smartcard technology for banking the unbanked.
As the Deputy Governor in charge of financial stability, he successfully maintained oversight of the soundness of the banking sector which has continued to be stable and sound.
POLICY INITIATIVES — 2000 TO PRESENT
• Designed and implemented the analytical framework that guides monetary policy and the workings of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of Ghana. The inflation targeting framework established was successful in reducing inflation from over 40 per cent in 2000 to 10.2 per cent by 2007 while maintaining exchange rate stability and increasing growth.
• Instrumental in designing and implementing policy initiatives such as the abolition of the secondary reserve requirements and the opening up of the banking sector to competition. This has resulted in a major increase in the availability of credit to the private sector from 12.5 per cent of GDP in 2001 to 28.5 per cent of GDP today.
• Leader of Bank of Ghana technical team and part of Government Team that has negotiated with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund since 2001 through HIPC and PRGF. For the first time since 1983 Ghana has successfully ended its dependence on IMF assistance and this allows Ghana to pursue more independent policies.
• Member of the Government technical negotiating team on HIPC Paris Club and Completion Point Negotiations. Ghana completed the HIPC process successfully with significant debt relief of close to $4 billion.
• Member of Government Team to negotiate the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) compact with the U.S. Government. Was responsible for drafting the financial sector component of the compact, with $547 million obtained.
• Member of Government Technical Team on the deregulation of the petroleum sector. Successful deregulation has subsequently saved the Government over $700 million over the last three years.
• As Chairman of the Capital Markets Committee, was responsible for the strategy for accessing the international capital markets with a debut $750 million which was four times oversubscribed. Was member of the Government Team that undertook the successful roadshow to market Ghana to investors. The bond proceeds have been critical in undertaking investments in the energy sector and have also been earmarked for the Kumasi-Accra dual carriageway as well as the Western railway line. Ghana won the Euromoney Award for best bond issue for Emerging Markets.
• Key in the design and implementation of the successful redenomination of the cedi which has been hailed globally. The cedi through this process has strengthened as Ghanaians have found renewed confidence in their currency.
• Key in the design and implementation of the e-zwich common platform for all banks, savings and loans companies and rural banks. This common platform will result in interoperability across different financial institutions and is the first nationwide technologically driven platform for monetary transactions across the country. It has put Ghana on the map as a world leader in the application of biometric smartcard technology for banking the unbanked.
• As the Deputy Governor in charge of financial stability, maintains oversight over the soundness of the banking sector which has continued to be stable.
EDUCATION & WORK EXPERIENCE
• 1991-1995 Ph.D. in Economics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia., Canada
Specilisation: Macroeconomics, International Economics, and Monetary Economics
• 1987-1988 — M.Sc Economics University of Oxford, UK (Lincoln College)
• 1984-1986 — B.Sc. Economics (First Class Hons.), University of Buckingham, UK
• 1982-1984 — Chartered Institute of Bankers Diploma (A.C.I.B) –UK
With distinctions in Monetary Economics, Accountancy, Law and Banking Principles. Emile Woolf College of Accountancy, London, England
• 1975-1982 — Tamale Secondary School – GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels
WORK EXPERIENCE
• June 2006 to present — Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana
• Member, Monetary Policy Committee
• Chairman, Capital Market Committee
• 2001-06 — Special Assistant to the Governor, Bank of Ghana
• 2001-06 — Head, Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Department, Bank of Ghana
• 2000-01 — Senior Economist, and Head of Economic Analysis, Bank of Ghana Research Department
• 1996-00 — Assistant Professor of Economics, Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University, Texas, USA
• Taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Macroeconomics, Derivatives, and Foreign Exchange Markets. International Trade and International Monetary Economics
• 1994 — Economist, International Monetary Fund. Washington. D.C. Research Department.
• Conducted research on international capital flows and the sequencing of fiscal reforms in developing countries
• “The Determination of Bank Interest Spreads in Ghana: An Empirical Analysis of Panel Data” with Martin Ofori and Franklin Belnye, September 2005
• “Developing a Composite Indicator of Economic Activity in Ghana”, with Benjamin Amoah, Bank of Ghana Working Paper, February 2004
• “A Simple Vector Error Correction Forecasting Model for Ghana”, with Joseph Atta-Mensah, Bank of Ghana Working Paper, August 2003
• “Monetary Growth, Inflation and Exchange Rate Policy in Ghana"
Research Department, Bank of Ghana, Journal of the West African Monetary Institute, 2003
• “The Transmission Mechanism for Monetary Policy in Ghana”, with Philip Abradu-Otoo, Bank of Ghana Policy Paper , August 2003
• “The Determinants of Exchange Rates in Ghana”, with Zakari Mumuni. Bank of Ghana Working Paper. March, 2003
• “The Feasibility of Monetary Union in West Africa”. Mimeo. Economic Commission for Africa, November 2002
• “Comparative Institutional Features of Different Common Central
Banks”, West African Monetary Institute. Mimeo. February, 2002.
• “Designing an Exchange Rate Mechanism for the West African Monetary Zone”, West African Monetary Institute. Mimeo. February 2002
• “Explaining African Economic Growth Performance: The Case of Ghana”, with Ernest Aryeetey and A. Fosu. Paper prepared for the African Economic Research Consortium. April 2001
• "Assessing the effectiveness of Intervention on the Foreign Exchange Market in Ghana". Research Department, Bank of Ghana, February 2000
• "A Review of the Literature of the Impact of Financial Sector Liberalisation on the Poor", with Dr E.K.Y. Addison and Maxwell Opoku Afari, Research Department, Bank of Ghana, August 2000
• "Financial Markets in Africa. Issues and Challenges for Research," with Professor Ernest Aryeetey, ISSER. October 2000 AERC
• “Currency Substitution and Money Demand in Ghana: A Cointegration Analysis”. Research Department, Bank of Ghana, November 2000
• "Why the Apparent Rush to Market Reform"? Journal of Economics, 1999
• "The Sequencing of Fiscal Reform during Structural Adjustment. Lessons from Ghana, Uganda, and Zimbabwe", Comparative Economic Studies, Vol. XXXVIII No.2/3 Summer-Fall 1996
“A Closer Look at The Distributional Impact of Ghana’s Structural Adjustment Program (1983-1992). Journal of Modern African Studies. Vol.36 No.1, March 1998•
“Estimating the Aggregate Values of Human Capital in Sub- Saharan Africa”, co-authored with Samuel A.Laryea. Review of
Human Factor Studies. Vol. III No.1. June 1997
• "Africa, the Challenge of Development". Book Chapter in Stephen. Gardner's Comparative Economic Systems, Dryden 1999
PUBLICATIONS, SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
• 2007 — Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (FCIB)
• 2000 — Who Is Who Among America’s Teachers? - Baylor University
• 1999 — Young Researcher Award: Baylor University, Texas, USA
1995-1999 — President’s Research Fellowship: Ph.D. Simon Fraser University
• 1991-1995 — 4 Graduate Fellowships: Ph.D. Simon Fraser University, Canada
• 1986 Sir Alan Peacock Prize. Best Economics Student, Department of Economics, University of Buckingham, UK.
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