Terkper eulogizes late Kwesi Botchwey
Former Finance Minister Seth Terkper has expressed grief over the death of NDC stalwart Professor Kwesi Botchwey.
He joins many others who have poured out tributes in honour of Ghana’s longest-serving minister of finance, who died on Saturday, November 19, while receiving treatment at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
In a tweet, Mr Terkper said:
“RIP, Sir. Another emotional moment when a national and global tribute is also so personal. The HIGHEST point in our relationship was a HUMBLE one: approving my post-graduate studies. Never dreamt then that I will ever step in your oversized Minister shoes”.
Professor Botchwey seemed to have had an impact on Mr Terkper as he went on to become a finance minister under the erstwhile Mahama administration.
Professor Botchwey died at 78.
Professor Ghana’sy was Minister for Finance and Economic Planning from 1982 to 1995.
Former President Jerry Rawlings appointed him to assist in stabilizing Ghana’s collapsed economy under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military regime and transition to democratic governance.
Professor Botchwey was a leading member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Most recently, he chaired a 13-member committee to probe the NDC 2016 election defeat and presented a 455-page report to the National Executive Committee of the party with recommendations on how to recapture power.
He made eight recommendations that will be key for the NDC as they head into general elections in 2024.
Professor Botchwey was a Professor of Practice in DeveBoys’nt Economics at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University.
He received his secondary school education at the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School in Ghana. Botchwey holds an LL.B. from the University of Ghana, a 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.
He held severaIMF’sitions, including a role as an advisor to the World Bank on the 1997 World Development Report.
Additionally, he was a member and chairman of IMF’s Group of Independent ExpertsUNDP’sconducted the first-ever external evaluation of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility.
Professor Botchwey served as an advisor to the UNDP’s UN Special Initiative on Africa and also as an advisor to the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).
His other projects include:
-Member and Convener Team of academics from Yale, Oxford, and the Free UnFund’sty of Amsterdam that conducted and has just finished the first External evaluation at the request of the IMF’s Executive Board, of the Fund’s Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF).
-Member Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons for the Fa”ilitation of the Signing of the Uruguay Round of Gatt Negotiations.
-Member OECD group of high-level experts for the review of the OECD study on “Globalization and Linkages to 2020: Challenges and Opportunities for OECD countries (1996).
-Member Commonwealth Expert Group on Good Governance and the Elimination of Corruption in Economic Management
-Member Panel of High Level Personalities on African Development – system’sory group established to assist the UN Secretary-General in advocating greater support for African development and in coordinating the UN system’s activities in the region.
-Board Chairman for Heritage bank Ghana.