President Nana Akufo-Addo has described the death of former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwesi Botchway as a sad development.
According to the President, Dr. Kwesi Botchway was his contemporary, in the mid-1960s, at the University of Ghana, Legon, describing him as a longstanding public servant, who discharged his duties thoughtfully and with dignity.
“The thoughts and sympathies of my wife, Rebecca, the First Lady, and I are with his partner, children and family. I extend my deepest condolences to them, and also to the National Democratic Congress, of which he was a prominent and much-respected member. Ghana has lost a fine gentleman and exceptional public servant,” President Akufo-Addo said in a post on Facebook.
Dr. Kwesi Botchway died at age 78, on 19th November 2022, at the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital where he has been for the last few days seeking medical care.
He is known to be Ghana’s longest-serving Finance Minister serving in the Military Junta, Provisional National Defence Council(PNDC ) 1982-1991 and the constitutional period of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) (1992 to 1995).
Prof. Kwesi Botchway schooled at the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School in Ghana. He held an LL.B. from the University of Ghana, LL.M from Yale Law School, and a doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School.
He taught at the University of Zambia, the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and the University of Ghana.
Prof. Botchwey worked as an advisor to the World Bank on the 1997 World Development Report.
He was also a member and Chairman of IMF‘s Group of Independent Experts who conducted the first ever external evaluation of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility, an advisor to the UNDP‘s UN Special Initiative on Africa and an advisor to the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).