2010 appointment letter of John Mahama-led Economic Management Team pops up

The role of government’s Economic Management Team (EMT) has come up strongly in recent times within the context of Ghana’s current economic challenges and the role of the current leader of the EMT, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.

Under the Fourth Republic, the vice president has been known to lead the EMT, which is a largely advisory body to the president.

It is usually composed of some of the top economic and finance brains that a party has on offer.

In the banter between pro-government and opposition activists, one question that has often come up is whether or not John Mahama, during his time as vice president to the late John Evans Atta Mills, was ever handed the role of EMT head.

That question seems to have been settled.

A letter dated November 23, 2010, has been circulated as the formal appointment letter of Mahama as head of the Mills-era presidency.

It was signed by the then Cabinet Secretary JK Berbaako-Mensah and copied to the then Chief Of Staff, Henry Martey Newman.

Members of the EMT, which was to sit at least once a month, included the then ministers of finance, energy, agric, trade and industry, as well as the then Bank of Ghana governor and other members of the government’s economic advisory board.

See contents of the letter below: