Nana Akufo Addo

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the President of Ghana since 2017. He was born on March 29, 1944, in Swalaba, Accra, Ghana, to a prominent Ghanaian royal and political family as the son of Adeline and Edward Akufo-Addo.

Akufo-Addo was raised in Accra, Ghana’s capital. He attended primary school at the Government Boys School, Adabraka, and later Rowe Road School (now Kinbu), both in Accra Central. He went to England to study for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College, Sussex. He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at the Accra Academy. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1967. He studied law in the UK and was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in July 1971.

Akufo-Addo began his political career in 1975 when he joined the People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ), a pro-democracy group that opposed the military government of General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. He was elected three times to parliament in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He served as the Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 under the Kufuor-led administration. In 2008, he ran for president of Ghana but lost to John Atta Mills. He was elected president in 2016 and assumed office on January 7, 2017.

Akufo-Addo is a lawyer and a human rights activist. He has been a guardian of democracy in Ghana and set up and financed The Statesman newspaper, which has become the unofficial mouthpiece of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He is a member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, which was established to examine the future role of the Commonwealth. He is also a member of the Global Leadership Foundation, an organization that works to promote good governance around the world.