NPP flagbearer race: 3 qualities of Boakye Agyarko that make him the best aspirant

NPP members all over the world are preparing for the 2023 Super Delegates Congress, which is scheduled for Saturday, August 26, 2023.

One of the 10 contenders hoping to be elected as the flagbearer of the NPP is Boakye Agyarko, a former Minister of Energy.

This GhanaWeb article takes a closer look at three of the top qualities that make him stand tall among the other nine who are also looking to convince delegates to vote for them to make it to the top five of the list.

Banking expert

In his younger years, Boakye Agyarko spent some time in the United States of America, educating himself and enriching his experience in the banking field.

Whilst in the United States, he earned an Advanced Professional Certificate in Banking from the 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 New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Ghana in 2007.

Manager and excellent negotiator

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 learned to exercise responsibility in a sea of uncertainty authority.

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.

Revered economist

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.

Background

A super delegate conference of the NPP will be held on Saturday, August 26, 2023, to reduce the number of contenders for the flagbearer position to five, while the main primaries would be held in November 2023 to choose the party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 elections.

The ten candidates are Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; a former Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen; Kwadwo Poku, an energy expert; Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joe Ghartey; a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto; a former General Secretary of the NPP, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong; MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong; a former MP for Offinso North, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku; and a former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko.

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