Charles Adu Boahen
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Charles K. Adu Boahen | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Minister of State for Finance | |
| In office March 2017 – 14 November 2022 | |
| President | Nana Akuffo-Addo |
| Preceded by | Cassiel Ato Forson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | |
| Party | New Patriotic Party |
| Relations | Kwabena Boahen (brother) |
| Parent |
|
| Alma mater | Harvard Business School, University of Southern California, Mfantsipim School, Achimota School |
| Portfolio | Finance |
Charles Kofi Adu Boahen (born May 1970) is a Ghanaian investment banker, businessman, politician and public servant. He served as a Deputy Minister of Finance and then Minister of State at the Finance Ministry in the government of President Nana Akufo-Addo between 2017 and 2022. He is a member of the New Patriotic Party.[1][2][3][4][5] Adu Boahen is the son of Mrs Jane Thyra Adu Boahen [6] and Prof. Albert Adu Boahen, a global academic, historian and politician who became the New Patriotic Party's flagbearer in the 1992 Ghanaian general elections.[7]
Prior to his stint in government, Adu Boahen had a 20 year career in private sector corporate finance, private equity and asset management commencing on New York's Wall Street, then on to Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa. After leaving his government role in November 2022, he has since returned to private business.[8][9][10][11]
Adu Boahen was born in Accra to a middle class family. His father Albert Adu Boahen was then a professor of history at the University of Ghana, and his mother Jane Thyra Boahen worked at the Bank of Ghana. He has 4 siblings including Kwabena Boahen, a professor of biomedical engineering at Stanford.[12] A brilliant student, he was educated at Ghana's Achimota School, where he obtained his 'O' Levels, and Mfantsipim School, where he did his 'A' Levels.[13]
After completing his secondary school education in Ghana, he proceeded to the United States, where he earned his undergraduate BSc in chemical engineering from the University of Southern California. While an undergrad, Adu Boahen quickly realised he would not enjoy working as a full-time scientist. He won a summer internship at the Wall Street bank Salomon Smith Barney via the competitive Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a mentoring programme which helps deserving students get internships and other opportunities.[14] Having impressed during his internship, he was offered a job, and upon graduating from USC he moved to New York to commence his career at Salomon Smith Barney in the investment banking division, with a focus on the chemicals and energy sectors. He worked there for a few years before taking a brief career break to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School.[15][16]
Career
Hon. Charles Kofi Adu Boahen has over 19 years of private sector experience in Finance, specifically in Corporate Finance, Investment Banking, Asset Management and Private Equity.
After school, he worked with companies such as investment bank Salomon Smith Barney which is now part of Citigroup on Wall Street, and then later the $400mm AIG African Infrastructure Fund as an investment officer.[17] At Salomon he was a member of their Investment Banking Division where his responsibilities included various corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions assignments, primarily in the Chemicals and Energy sector. After AIG he joined the investment bank JP Morgan as Vice President in charge of Investment Banking for Sub-Saharan Africa[18] with the exception of South Africa.[19] He was during this period also the Senior Country Representative at JP Morgan, Nigeria.[19] After 5 years with JP Morgan he left to take up a role as Director and Regional Head of Corporate & Investment Banking for Standard Bank of South Africa, working out of Johannesburg.
Moving back to Ghana, he founded his firm, Black Star Advisors (BSA) in 2007.[20] Black Star Advisors is a boutique investment bank and asset management firm.[21] He also founded Primrose Properties Ghana, a real estate development company which has completed a number of projects including Primrose Place and Ghacem Towers.[15][22] He resigned from the board and management of his private companies in 2017 in order to take up a role in Ghana's government as a Deputy Minister of Finance.[23]
In January 2023, his company Black Star Brokerage's certification to operate as a foreign exchange broker by the Bank of Ghana was renewed.[24]
Political career
More of a technocrat than a politician, Adu Boahen joined the government as Deputy Finance Minister responsible for Finance in the Nana Akufo-Addo administration in April 2017, a position he held for 4 years until he was elevated by the president to the position of Minister of State at the Finance Ministry.[25][26] Formerly a dual citizen of Ghana and the USA, he stated during his initial vetting process with the Appointments Committee of Ghana's Parliament that he had relinquished his US citizenship in order to comply with the requirements of Ghana's laws governing certain government appointees.[27] Following a second vetting for his elevated role, Parliament approved his nomination as Minister of State at the Finance Ministry in June 2021.[28]
In his role as Deputy Minister, Adu Boahen assisted the Minister for Finance in executing his mandate with a specific focus on Finance and External Resource mobilization. As a Minister of State his oversight responsibilities were expanded to include Budget in addition to the Finance and External Resource Mobilization Portfolios and attending Cabinet meetings on behalf of the Minister.[29]