J.H. Mensah loved democracy profoundly - Akufo-Addo

The late former Senior Minister, J.H. Mensah had a profound attachment to democratic values, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said.

Speaking at the final funeral rites ceremony in Accra on Friday, 17 August 2018, Mr Akufo-Addo said among other things that: “His attachment to democratic values is profound, he helped me confirm my conviction that the rapid development of our nation was possible with democratic institutions”.

The President said Mr Mensah “subscribed fully with the concept of development in freedom, the mantra of the Dankwa-Dombo-Busia political tradition.”

He added: “…J.H. Mensah was a good man.”

Mr Mensah died in the early hours of Thursday, 12 July 2018.

He was a politician and an economist.

He was 89.

Mr Mensah began working as an assistant inspector of taxes in 1953 while the Gold Coast was still under colonial rule.

In 1958, Mr Mensah joined the United Nations Secretariat at the Centre for Development Planning, Projections and Policies, in New York City, United States.

He returned to Ghana in 1961 as the Head of Agency at the National Planning Commission which drew and implemented the country's Seven-Year Development Plan (1962–1969).

In 1969, he was elected to parliament and became the Finance Minister until 1972, when he was replaced by future head of state Ignatius Kutu Acheampong after the military coup.

In 2005, he was appointed Senior Minister by President J.A Kufuor.

J.H Mensah, until his death, was a founding member of the governing New Patriotic Party.