Akufo-Addo: Prof Botchway was an exceptional public servant

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has extended condolences to the National Democratic Congress and the family of the Professor Kwesi Botchway who died at the weekend.

Prof. Botchway, the longest serving Finance Minister in Ghana, died on Saturday morning, November 19, 2022, whilst receiving medical treatment at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

He was 78 years.

President Akufo-Addo in a message on Monday described the death of Prof Botchway as “a very sad development.”

Ghana, he said, had lost a fine gentleman and exceptional public servant.

“My contemporary, in the mid-1960’s, at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Botchway was a longstanding public servant, who discharged his duties thoughtfully and with dignity.

“The thoughts and sympathies of my wife, Rebecca, the First Lady, and I are with his partner, children, and family.

I extend my deepest condolences to them, and to the National Democratic Congress, of which he was a prominent and much respected member.

“May his soul rest in perfect peace in the Bosom of the Almighty until the last day of the resurrection when we shall all meet again,” he said.

Prof Botchwey, until his demise, was the longest serving Finance Minister in Ghana.

He served in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military government from 1982 to 199i and in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from 1992 to 1995.

Kwesi Botchway was a professor of practice in Development Economics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University.

He was also a member and Chairman of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Group of Independent Experts, who conducted the first ever external evaluation of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment facility.

He was an advisor to the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) UN Special Initiative on Africa, the World Bank on the 1997 World Development Report, and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)

Prof. Botchway had his secondary school education at the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School before proceeding to the University of Ghana for his LL. B, an 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.