NPP Primaries: What you need to know about Boakye Agyarko

In preparation for the upcoming presidential primary scheduled for November 4, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has unveiled a list of 17 designated polling stations for the Super Delegates Conference set to take place on Saturday, August 26, 2023.

This selection has been strategically made with the intention of narrowing down the pool of aspirants to a final count of five contenders.

Find below the profile of Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko

Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko is a true patriot who has dedicated his life to the quest of bringing political peace and stability, economic development and social justice to his country, Ghana. He is fearless, forthright, a good listener, empathetic and compassionate towards the afflicted and those whom society has left behind.

Born in Kumasi, in the Ashanti region to Mr. Kwasi Agyarko, a Merchant and a United party activist from Jamase, Ashanti and Teacher Jane Ladze Padi from Krobo-Odumase in the Eastern Region, he had his elementary education at K.O. Methodist Primary School (Ashanti New Town) and the University of Science and Technology UST Primary School.

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

Boakye (or Torino as he was affectionately called in school) was an agile and enthusiastic sportsman. He represented Mfantsipim School, (Kwabotwe) in 110m hurdles, triple and long jump events. He demonstrated a high sense of discipline whilst in school, which earned him various student leadership positions such as Secretary of the Voluntary Work Camps Association (VOLU) and President of the Ghana United Nations Students and Youth Association (GUNSA).

He later became the National Secretary, National President and National Coordinator of GUNSA in 1978, 1979 and 1980 respectively. The Mfantsipim School Year Book for the class of 1974 describes Boakye as, “one of the most colourful students to climb the Kwabotwe Hills from 1969 to 1976”.

He completed his National Service mandate as the National Coordinator of GUNSA, to which he had previously served as National Secretary and President in 1977 and 1978 respectively. He subsequently joined Management & Investment Consultants Limited (MANCONSULT), a private economic management consulting firm in Accra as junior economist from 1981 to 1984.

During the abortive coup of Halidu Giwa and his friends on June 19, 1983, he was arrested, sent to the Air Force and shot execution style. He was left for dead but it was a nurse that realized that he was still alive.

He was rushed to the operating theatre and barely survived surgery performed by Lt. Colonel (Dr.) Akpalu. After a difficult and painful recuperation, he went into voluntary exile in the United States.

Whilst in the United States, he earned an Advanced Professional Certificate in Banking from American Institute of Bankers. He also earned an MBA with concentration in Financial Economics from Pace University, New York City.

For over twenty-two (22) years, Boakye Agyarko worked as a Professional Banker at the Bank of New York where he rose to the position of Vice President and Head of Global Network Management in the Investment Management and Services Division. He resigned from the bank to campaign full time for the flagbearership of the NPP in Ghana in 2007.

With the wealth of over twenty years of experience in banking, investment and finance behind him, Boakye K. Agyarko is well equipped with excellent negotiation, organizational and managerial skills, a sense of propriety and vast international exposure to tackle Ghana's seemingly protracted problems head on. In the position of a Vice President of a major global bank where one learns the value of achieving compromise and consensus in the formulation and implementation of policies, he has learned to exercise responsibility in a sea of uncertainty authority.

His training in economics has taught him that important results emerge from an unfolding process and that good policy must have a sense of strategy, pace and timing. It has also developed him into a strategist who seeks to understand the constellation of forces present in a situation and to arrange them to point towards a desired result.

As a founding member of NPP, Boakye’s loyalty and allegiance to our great party is second to none. He has continually demonstrated his resourcefulness, generosity and loyal service to NPP since infancy. He has always answered the call to help when the party was in its struggling days be it administrative or financial resources.

He is a founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He ably served as the chairman of the Danquah Busia Club of North America, and for a time served as a Trustee of the Busia Foundation. He later became the Coordinator for the NPP in North America where he took up the challenge of building the party and coordinated its activities within the Ghanaian community in North America, at the same time liaising with the party back home in Ghana. His engagement in our political and socio-economic discourse and dialogue is very well documented. As his contribution, he wrote a weekly column in the Ghanaian newspaper, “The Stateman” titled “Letter from America” from 1993 through 1998.

In 2007, Boakye returned to Ghana and contested in the presidential primaries for the leadership and flag bearer of the NPP for the 2008 general elections.

In 2009, he was selected as a member of the Dr. Heymann Committee to tour the country and gather information for the reorganization of the party.

Boakye Agyarko with one of his mentors, the Venerable J H Mensah in 1996

In 2011 he was appointed as National Campaign Manager for the 2012 general election and served as a policy advisor to the 2016 campaign.

As Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko had supervisory responsibility for sixteen (16) major Sector Agencies, including Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC), National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST), Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company (GCMC), Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Northern Electricity Department Company (NEDCo), Bui Power Authority (BPA), Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO), Energy Commission, Petroleum Commission, Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) and VRA Resettlement Trust Fund.

During the run-up to the 2020 general elections, he undertook the training of party officers and agents in the Eastern Region.

Boakye Agyarko is a regular guest on Oman FM’s Boiling Point political programme.

He is divorced and a father of two daughters.

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OGB