Ghanaian president names bank chief as deputy: official

ACCRA (AFP) - Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, who was sworn in last week after his predecessor died, named the governor of the Bank of Ghana as his deputy on Tuesday.

Mahama chose Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, 61, presidential spokesman John Jinapor said. The nomination will be forwarded to the parliament for approval.

Amissah-Arthur has been governor of the Bank of Ghana since October 2009, following his appointment by former president John Evans Atta Mills, who died last week.

Amissah-Arthur was deputy finance minister in Ghana from April 1993 to March 1997.

Ghana will hold a state funeral service and burial for Mills on August 10 after his death July 24.

He died five months ahead of presidential elections, in which he was to seek re-election. No official cause was given, but he was said to have been suffering from throat cancer.

Mahama, who was vice president, was sworn in to serve out the remainder of Mills's term, as dictated by the west African nation's constitution.

Presidential elections are to be held in December in the country seen as a bastion of democracy in the often turbulent region.