Development Economist, Dr. Isaac Bannerman Nii Moi Thompson has been appointed as Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission pending consultations with the Council of State.
A former Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission, he played an integral role in preparing the country’s 40-Year Development Plan.
Born at Bantama a suburb of Kumasi to Isaac Bannerman Thompson Snr. of the Cocoa Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Madam Esther Adoley Allotey, he left his home aged sixteen for Liberia and Sierra Leone in order to fulfil his dream of obtaining secondary and higher education
After a year of study in Sierra Leone, he returned to Liberia and worked as a journalist.
Having practiced journalism for four years, he left for the United States of America and successfully obtained his first degree in General Economics from the City University of New York-Brooklyn College, furthered and obtained his masters in International Economics from State University of New York. Albany and finally a doctorate in Developmental Economics and Public Policy from the University of Pittsburgh.
He later worked as a Senior Economist at New York State Bureau of Fiscal and Economic Analysis in New York City before returning home in 1997 after a 21-year absence.
Following a fruitful stint with international and local organisations including the United Nations Development Planning for which he served as a Senior Economic advisor in South Africa the development economist returned home to join the Government of Ghana in 2013.
Between 2014 and 2015, he led Ghana’s technical delegations to the United Nations (UN) in shaping the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and later facilitated their integration into the country’s national development agenda.
As Chairman, he will work closely with the Minister for Finance, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, the Government Statistician, and representatives from the sixteen regions, providing strategic advice to the president and parliament on Ghana’s development policies.
In a related appointment, President John Dramani Mahama has named Albert Kwadwo Twum Boafo as the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) until the Board is reconstituted.
A Civil Engineer and finance expert, he previously served as Chief Executive of the Ghana Free Zones Authority from 2009 to 2017.
He holds a BEng in Materials Engineering from the University of Wales, MSc in Civil Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy New York, and an MBA in Finance and Investment Analysis from Stetson University, USA.
Source: Reuben Addo, Pan African TV