Kwame Addo-Kufuor

Hon. Kwame Addo-Kufuor
Member of Parliament for Manhyia
In office 7 January 1997 – 7 January 2009
Succeeded by	Mathew Opoku Prempeh
Minister of the Interior
In office 2008–2009
President	John Kufuor
Preceded by	Kwamena Bartels
Succeeded by	Cletus Avoka
Minister for Defence
In office January 2001 – 2008
President	John Kufuor
Personal details
Born	(1940-07-14) July 14, 1940 Kumasi, Ghana
Nationality	Ghanaian
Political party	New Patriotic Party
Relations	John Kufuor - brother
Profession	Medical doctor

Kwame Addo-Kufuor (born 14 July 1940) is a Ghanaian politician and physician. Addo-Kufuor was a member of parliament from Manhyia, and from 2001 to 2007 he was the Minister for Defense under President John Kufuor, his brother. Between June 2008 and 2009, he was Minister for Interior.

Early life and education

Born in Kumasi, Addo-Kufuor is a distinguished Ghanaian consultant physician and statesman, former president of the Ghana Medical Association and later, Ghana’s Minister of Defence and Interior. He concurrently served as Member of Parliament for the Manhyia Constituency in Kumasi from 1997 to 2008.

He was educated at Osei Tutu Boarding School (Osei Tutu Senior High School), before he proceeded to the famous Achimota School in Accra, Ghana after which he gained admission to study at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, England, where he initially enrolled in the arts earning a master's degree before switching to the sciences to do a Bachelor of Medicine, and Bachelor of Surgery degree. He became the first black student to be secretary of the Medical Students Association at Jesus College before continuing with other advance courses in medicine at the University College Medical School, London. His postgraduate studies were at The Middlesex Medical School Hospital, London. In 1975, Addo Kufuor passed the MRCP (UK) examination.

Professional life

Addo-Kufuor started his medical practice as a member of the teaching staff of the Middlesex Medical School Hospital and other hospitals in London before returning home to Ghana. He first worked at two of the country’s leading hospitals, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra and later the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. It was in Kumasi in 1978 that he later set up what became one of the city’s leadings clinics, Kufuor Clinic, of which he remains to date as the consultant-physician in charge.

In Kumasi during that period, he became a lecturer at the Department of Medicine at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, which university instituted in his honour in 1990, the Addo-Kufuor Prize for the best student in the final Bachelor of Medicine examination.

Currently a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, the Ghana Medical Association, and of the West African College of Physicians, Addo-Kufuor was in 1993 appointed inspector of examinations for the final medical examinations at the University of Ghana Medical School. He also served as member of the executive council of the medical school and was appointed member of Court of Examiners responsible for assessing foreign trained doctors wishing to practice in Ghana by the Ghana Medical and Dental Council.

During his presidency of the Ghana Medical Association from 1992 to 1995, a critical period in Ghana’s transition to democratic rule, Addo-Kufuor successful steered the GMA off potential political conflicts and set on course infrastructural development for this professional association and was representative for West Africa on the Confederation of African Medical Associations.

Puplic service/politics

When the ban on party politics was lifted by the military government of Jerry John Rawlings in 1992, Addo-Kufuor decided to go into public service and was unanimously elected as the Member of Parliament for the Manhyia Constituency of the New Patriotic Party from 1997 to 2008 when he resigned. He was former chairman, Control Board of Command and Staff College of the Ghana Armed Forces, chairman of Cabinet Committee on Governance, and chairman of the board of Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre.

In 2001, when the NPP won the Presidential elections and claimed majority in Parliament, Addo-Kufuor was appointed defence minister, a position he held until 2007.

Before his appointment as Minister for Defence, he was ranking member for health in Parliament and played a leading role during the pilot stage of the establishment of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

The new Ministry of Defence Complex, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre, Burma Hall, Burma Camp Computer Centre were among some of the major initiatives undertaken during his tenure as Minister for Defence.

Addo-Kufuor was instrumental in the construction of the new 37 Military Hospital in Accra and with the support of Ghanaian and Indian colleagues, the elevation of the hospital to a post - graduate medical college currently training medical specialists.

The Beijing Barracks and the “Open Day” of the Ghana Armed Forces were among the projects undertaken during this time.

As M.P. for Manhyia, he was responsible for many educational, health, and infrastructural development initiatives. The Abbey Park Community Centre was the most significant of these projects.

He was a member of the ECOWAS negotiation team that arranged the first Meeting between the Ivorian government and the rebel movement, Forces Nouvelles. He also led the Ministry of Defence delegations to China, UK, US, Russia, Burundi, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, India, Lebanon, Togo, and South Africa. These contacts helped to enhance the human and equipment capabilities of the Ghana Armed Forces.

During the Dagbon chieftaincy crisis in northern Ghana, from 2002 to 2003, Addo–Kufuor served concurrently as defence minister and interior minister. In 2008, he was again appointed interior minister. It was during this time he assisted in developing close collaboration between the police and military in the fight against armed robbery in Ghana. He was also instrumental in safeguarding the peace during the 2008 general elections.

In 2017, Addo-Kufuor was appointed by the government of Nana Addo Danquah Akufuo Addo as chairman of the board of directors of the SSNIT, the state pension fund.

Addo-Kufuor is an active member of the Anglican Church for many years. His hobbies are gardening, reading, music, foreign travel, and listening to the radio. He also enjoys boxing and football in a spectator capacity.

He married his wife Rosemary in London in 1966 and they have three children: Kwame, who is currently president of the Ghana Chamber of Mines; Kojo, an investment banker and the chief operating officer of Ghana Home Loans; and Nana Ama, also a banker and currently deputy managing director of the Eximbank, Ghana.

Education and training

• Royal College of Physicians, London (FRCP), 2000
• West Africa College of Physicians, Ghana (FWACP), 1985
• The Middlesex Medical School Hospital, London, (MRCP), 1975
• University of Cambridge (M.A., M.B., B.CHIR), 1970
• University College Hospital, Medical School, London (MRCS, England), 1970
• Achimota School, Ghana (0 Levels), 1959

Professional leadership

Professional profile

• Kufuor Clinic, Kumasi
• Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi
• Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra
• St. Heliers Hospital, London
• Old Church Hospital, Essex, UK
• St. Charles Hospital, London
• West Suffolk General Hospital, Bury St. Edmonds, England
• The Middlesex Medical School Hospital, London

Boards/chairmanship

• Chairman, Board of Directors - Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) - 2017 to date

GMA initiatives

Shadow Minister of Health

• As a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Health, he visited USA, China, Germany, and Zimbabwe to study health delivery systems, particularly their health financing schemes, post graduate medical institutions and integration of traditional and orthodox health systems.

Minister for Defence

• Ensuring smooth change-over of the military high command in the
• wake of the democratic transfer of power in 2001
• Facilitating good civilian-military relations
• Ensuring the neutrality of the military by abolishing Associations for the Defence of the Revolution (ACOR) and other partisan political organisations in the armed forces
• Establishment of Emergency Response Unit in the GAF
• Special welfare packages for the Ghana Armed Forces. including SSB housing loans and car loans
• Establishment of Agro Forestry Project for GAF
• Construction of a new Ministry of Defence headquarters
• Construction of Beijing Barracks
• Construction of Burma Hall
• Expansion works at 37 Military Hospital
• Construction of Kofi Annan International

Publications

• Safe Motherhood in the Upper West Region of Ghana - GMA Publication Editor
• Propranolol, Diazepam, and their combination in the management of chronic anxiety in the Ghanaian patient - Ghana Medical Journal 1993-94 Vol 27-28
• Health for all by the year 2000 - Ghana Medical Journal 1997 Vol 3A
• Ghana's Health Sector towards the second millennium - Governance 1999 - Publication of the Institute of Economic Affairs
• Gold Coast Boy- Autobiography

Honours/awards

• 2002 - Man of the Year (Ghana) - the Independent
• 2002 - Minister of the Year (Ghana) - the Spectator
• 2006 - Gold Medal for Distinguished Medical Practice - Ghana Medical and Dental Council
• 2008 - Order of the Volta (Companion Division) Government of Ghana

Bibliography

• Kwame Addo-Kufuor: Gold Coast Boy (A Memoir). Digibooks Ghana Ltd, 2015, ISBN 978-9988-2-1913-0.

See also

• List of Ghana Defence Ministers

References

External links

• Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor on GhanaWeb.com