Baah-Wiredu Voted Africa's Best Finance Minister For 2008

The late Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, has been adjudged the Best Finance Minister in Africa for 2008.

The posthumous award was given by the Development Economic Resource, publishers of the Annual Meetings Daily, a newspaper which highlights developments on the African continent during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank annual meetings.

The award cited the contribution of the late minister to Ghana's economic reform, which had consistently put the country on the map of best performing business environments in the world for the past three years.

The ceremony took place in Washington, DC, in the United States of America and the award was received in honour of Baah-Wiredu by the Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei.

Present were the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Paul Acquah, and Ghana's Ambassador to the US, Dr Kwame Bawuah-Edusei.

Another African personality who received an award was the Governor of the Central Bank of Zambia, Mr Caleb Fundanga. He was adjudged the Best Central Bank Governor.

The award for the Best Commercial Bank went to Ethiopia, while the Africa Chief Executive Officer in the banking category award went to the First Bank of Nigeria.

Speaking on behalf of the award winners, the Governor of the Central Bank of Zambia, Mr Fundanga, paid tribute to Baah-Wiredu “for his enormous assistance to the development of Africa”.

He recounted that during the 2007 annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, he and Baah-Wiredu were voted the Best Central Bank Governor in Africa and the Best Finance Minister, respectively, in the emerging market group.

Baah-Wiredu, who died in a South African hospital on September 24, this year, will be buried in his home town of Asante Akyem Agogo on November 8, this year, after a state funeral in Accra.

Arrangements made by the government and members of his family indicate that his body, which has been flown in from South Africa, will lie in state at the forecourt of the State House on Thursday, November 6, 2008 for a state funeral, before being conveyed to Agogo on Friday, November 7, 2008 for the final funeral rites on November 8, 2008.

He was 56 and left behind a wife and six children.