Who becomes the next CEO of NIEP

The National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) in recent times has been in the news on several occasions with names that are likely to succeed its former CEO Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah, the MP for Ejisu and the Deputy Minister designate for Finance.

The most likely names to make it through, out of the lots are, Joseph Kumah Mackay, Abigail Swad Laryea and Kofi Ofosu Nkansah. The question one may ask is, who amongst them stands tall and has what it takes to find favour in the eyes of the appointing authority?

Kofi Ofosu Nkansah is the Chief Executive Officer for Accra Digital Center. He contested for the NPP Parliamentary Primaries of the Asante Akyem Central constituency in the Ashanti Region, to enable him become the Parliamentary Candidate for the NPP of the Constituency, yet he was unable to materialise his dream. The Asante Akyem Central Constituency is already an NPP seat which is currently being occupied by Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, a veteran Lawmaker who has been in parliament since 2009.

Also, Ms. Abigail Swad Laryea, until her appointment as Deputy CEO, schooled, worked and resided in the United States of America. Her appointment came as a replacement to the late Ms. Statsy Offei-Darko, the former Deputy CEO of NEIP who passed on. Ms Abigail Swad Laryea has been at post for barely two (2) years since the demise of the former Deputy CEO.

Joseph Kumah Mackay is currently the Director of Monitoring & Evaluation at the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme and formed part of the core team who rebranded the then Youth Enterprise Support (YES) to the now National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP). The M&E Director started his Political Journey in the diaspora UK where he was a Member of the Communication team of the NPP branch between the years 2010 and 2012. After serving the NPP diaspora branch in the UK, he came down to his home country to contest the NPP primaries in his Constituency, Sene. He won the primaries and became the NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Sene in 2012. Mackay remained the NPP Candidate from 2012 to 2020 and succeeded in breaking into the typical NDC strong hold which has never been won by the NPP since 1992 and garnered the following votes:

2012

Kwame Twumasi Ampofo 12,511

Joseph Kumah Mackay 6,721

2016

Kwame Twumasi Ampofo 10,229

Joseph Kumah Mackay 8,747

2020

Kwame Twumasi Ampofo 13,116

Joseph Kumah Mackay 13,100

Sene Constituency which happens to be one of the Constituencies that has always been won by the largest opposition Party NDC, started dwindling down in its vote margins from 2012 to 2020 when Mackay showed up on the NPP ticket, thus 12,000 plus votes to only 16 votes respectively.

Even though Mackay was in the lead with over a hundred votes in the 2020 elections, notwithstanding holding the entire country at ransom for close to two weeks, he lost the Sene West Seat, after the ballots in the controversial ballot box were counted. Mackay succeeded in increasing the Presidential vote margins significantly since 2012. He’s a grassroots mobilizer and has the focus of turning Sene Constituency, now Sene West Constituency into an NPP stronghold.

NPP should not lose its focus on the Sene West Seat, in that, it needs to be captured by all means and Mackay should be the Candidate to deliver the Seat because of the people’s love for him.