Danquah Institute Fellow Appointed Campaign Manager

A fellow of the Danquah Institute and political strategist, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, 54, has been appointed the Campaign Manager to the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Boakye Agyarko, who served as a senior campaign aide to Nana Addo in the 2008 presidential election, is noted for his organisational acumen and knowledge of the NPP, both ideologically and on the ground. He coordinated the campaign efforts of Nana Addo and others in 2009 to expand significantly the party’s Electoral College to include all polling station executives.

He contested the party’s 2007 presidential primary. Boakye Agyarko’s long record as a political activist dates back in the 1980s. He was shot in an execution style, presumed dead and deposited to the custody of ‘Atta the Mortuary man’ at the 37 Military morgue in 1983, following the Halidu Giwa failed coup attempt against the PNDC. However, he recovered well enough to become vice president of America's oldest bank, the Bank of New York.

He has an impeccable track record and one of the most persuasive orators in Ghanaian politics today.

Born in 1956 in Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region to Kwasi Agyarko, a Merchant and a United Party activist (and parliamentary candidate) from Jamase, Ashanti and Teacher Jane Ladze Padi from Krobo-Odumase in the Eastern Region, Boakye Agyarko had his elementary school education at the K.O. Methodist Primary School (Ashanti New Town) and the University of Science and Technology (now KNUST) Primary School.

He proceeded to Mfanstipim School in Cape Coast on September 18, 1969 and went on to the University of Ghana, Legon in 1976. He studied Economics and Political Science, and graduated with BA (Hons) in 1979.

Boakye Agyarko (or Torino as he was known by his school mates) represented Mfanstipim School, (Kwabotwe) in 110m hurdles, triple and long jump events. His demonstrated leadership led him to become the National Coordinator and eventually National President of the Ghana United Nation Students and Youth Association's National President.

While in the United States, Boakye Agyarko earned an Advanced Professional Certificate in Banking from the American Institute of Bankers. He also earned an MBA with concentration in Finance from Pace University in New York City. He served the Bank of New York for two decades rising to become vice president and Head of Global Network Management for the Americans in the Investment Management and Services Division.

Boakye Agyarko is a founding member of NPP and he has always been a proactive loyalist of the party.

He served as chairman of The Danquah Busia Club of North America. He is a former Trustee of the Busia Foundation and currently a fellow of the Danquah Institute.

He later headed the NPP in North America where he took up the challenge of building the party and coordinated its activities within the Ghanaian community in America, at the same time liaising with the party back home in Ghana. His engagement in Ghana's political and socio-economic discourse and dialogue is very well documented. As his contribution, he wrote a weekly column in the Ghanaian newspaper, “The Statesman” titled “Letter from America” from 1993 through 1998.