Flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has named the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election.
The confirmation of Dr. Opoku Prempeh was made at the party’s headquarters in Accra Thursday, July 04, 2024.
This follows a seven-month delay in the selection following the flag bearer’s plea to the party’s elders to grant him more time.
The NPP’s regulations requires that the presidential candidate who is not president names his running mate 12 months clear to the general election.
However, on December 06, 2023, the time due for the naming of the candidate, Dr. Bawumia asked for an extension of time from the party elders, in order to make further consultations.
Several names including the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and former Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the late Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah and a host of others.
Profile of Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh
Matthew Opoku Prempeh, born May 23, 1968, is the current Minister of Energy. Prior to that, he served as Education Minister in President Akufo-Addo’s first term.
He is the Member of Parliament for the Manhyia South constituency in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital. He was first elected to Parliament in 2008 and is a member of the New Patriotic Party.
In 2016, he was re-elected with 35,958 votes, representing 87.17% of the votes cast in the constituency.
Nana Poku –Napo, –as he is affectionately called, studied Human Biology and Medicine at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and had his post-graduate studies at the Netherlands Institute of Health Sciences and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Prior to parliament, he served as CEO of Keyedmap Security Services Limited from 2004 to 2009 and as a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2003. He is also a medical doctor.
He identifies as a Christian and is a nephew of former President, John Agyekum Kufuor. He remarried in 2024 after divorcing his first wife.
In May, 2017, President Akufo-Addo named him as part of his nineteen ministers who would form his cabinet. As a Cabinet minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh has been part of the inner circle of the president and has aided in key decision making activities in the country.
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