Franklin Cudjoe has said Ken Ofori-Atta has been elevated to a higher position pending his supposed new role after his reshuffle from the Finance ministry.
The President of IMANI-Africa says he does not believe Mr. Ofori-Atta was ousted for underperforming at the ministry but was rather reassigned to a position with more executive authority.
Speaking on TV3’s Ghana Tonight with Alfred Ocansey Wednesday, February 14, 2024, the founder of the policy think tank indicated that if the President’s cousin’s removal had anything to do with performance, then several persons at the ministry should have been ousted as well.
Rather, Mr. Cudjoe is confident the reshuffle was to hand over more executive powers to Ofori-Atta, reducing the Finance Ministry to a merely paper-pushing department under him.
“His sacking was not probably because he said he wasn’t going to the IMF and eventually we had to go to the IMF. Unless of course we are being told that he superintended monumental failure at the ministry.
“Because if he did, then everybody who worked under the ministry must be going anyway. So I’m not too sure the reason why he left is because he underperformed,” he stated.
Franklin Cudjoe explained further that, “whatever it is, this new role is much bigger and it places much more executive authority, he has much more executive power and he can advise as to whether we should move in a certain direction even before the Finance Ministry can do the paper work so it virtually reduces the Finance Ministry to maybe just pushing papers.”
Reports that Ken Ofori-Atta would be named senior presidential advisor to the President on financial matters is further corroborated with a clarification that his new portfolio will see him also serve as the president’s special envoy on international investment on the capital markets.
Despite both members of the ruling NPP and opposition NDC in Parliament describing his performance as abysmal and demanded his removal, Ken Ofori-Atta was Ghana’s longest serving finance minister.
On October 25, 2022, some 80 NPP MPs demanded his resignation over the bad state of the economy, which was reiterated by the NDC parliamentary caucus in February 2023.
Their calls for resignation were, however, rejected by President Akufo-Addo, who, at the time, asked for parliament to wait until conversations with the IMF were over.
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