Detailed Biography of Allan Kyeremante
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In addition, he is fluent in Ga and French. He is married to Patricia Christabel Kyerematen (nee Kingsley Nyinah), with two children.
Mr. Kyerematen is a graduate in Economics from the University of Ghana, and is also a qualified Barrister-at-Law from the Ghana Law School. In addition, he was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow at the School of Management of the University of Minnesota, under the United States Fulbright Fellowship Program. He entered Adisadel College at the record age of 9 years, and thereafter attended Achimota School for his sixth form education.
PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Alan Kyerematen has had a distinguished and successful professional career in both the private sector and public sector in Ghana and abroad, spanning a period of 30 years. He was listed by Times International Magazine in 1994, as one of the top hundred (100) Global Leaders of the New Millennium, alongside world renowned personalities such as Bill Gates of Microsoft and John F. Kennedy Jnr.
Hon. Kyerematen was a senior corporate executive with UAC Ghana Ltd, a subsidiary of Unilever International, and also worked for a number of years as a Principal Consultant and Head of Public Systems Management at the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI). In 1990, he was responsible for establishing the EMPRETEC Program in Ghana, sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd. It is conservatively estimated that 70% of Ghana’s high flying entrepreneurs are products of Mr. Kyerematen’s successful EMPRETEC program in Ghana.
His impressive track record, as the founding Chief Executive of EMPRETEC Ghana, includes leading the transformation of that institution from a small UNDP project with a staff of three into an independent Foundation with a staff strength of 70, supported by over 100 private consultants in Ghana. Within 3 years of establishing the EMPRETEC Program, he had turned it into an internationally recognized model for sustainable private sector development in Africa.
Whilst managing the EMPRETEC Program, Hon. Kyerematen implemented projects funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), UNDP, World Bank and the European Union. During the period be brought 180 senior British executives to Ghana as volunteers to advise and support small and medium enterprises. This is the largest ever deployment of British volunteer executives to assist private sector development in a single country. He was also responsible for the establishment of the Ghana Executive Service Organization (GESO), which became the first senior volunteer expert service organization in Africa to be granted membership of the
International Association of Senior Executive Service Organizations.
Before his appointment in 2001 by the Kufuor Administration, as its first Ambassador to the United States to shape and lead the NPP Government’s strategic and economic relations with the Bush Administration, he was the founding Regional Director of UNDP’s flagship program in Africa (Enterprise Africa) for private sector and entrepreneurship development in Africa, a program which he designed, established and managed, initially from New York, working closely with Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, then Assistant Administrator and Director of UNDP Africa and now President of the Republic of Liberia.
Under his leadership as Regional Director for Enterprise Africa, he established enterprise support programs and service organizations in 13 Sub-Saharan countries, and developed a strong Pan-African network of Business Development Service providers and client entrepreneurs in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. He supervised over 200 professional staff and technical consultants working across Africa and supporting over 4,000 African entrepreneurs and their growth-oriented small businesses. In the process, he developed innovative funding partnership arrangements with African governments and the international donor community.
Hon. Kyerematen has also had extensive management consulting experience in both the private and public sector. He was Chairman and Founding Partner of John Young and Associates, a leading private Ghanaian management consulting firm established in 1987. In addition, as a Principal Consultant and Head of Department in one of Ghana’s leading management institutes, the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), he was involved either as Team Leader or participated actively in a wide range of international and national assignments spanning the fields of economic management, financial services, private sector development, transportation management, health services management, telecommunications, public utilities and information services management.
The assignments included the following:
Corporate Restructuring of various private sector companies.
Restructuring of the Management and Administration of the Tertiary Education Institutions in Ghana
Re-organization of Ghana Civil Aviation Authority
Corporate Plan for Posts & Telecommunication (P&T) Corporation
Establishment of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC)
Management Audit of the State Shipping Corporation (Black Star Line)
Restructuring of the Information Services Department (ISD)
Strategic Plan for MDPI
Strategic Business Plans for Research Institutes under the CSIR, including Soil Research, Crops Research, Building and Road Research Institutes
Ghana Industry Policy Studies
Economic Profile Study of Ghana
Review of Executive Management, Finan¬cial and Operational Systems of Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation
Sector Study for the National Rural Water and Sanitation Program.
POLITICAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Hon. Kyerematen has been a stalwart and key strategist of the NPP since its inception in 1992. He is a Founding Member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and has also served on some of the highest decision-making bodies of the NPP that shaped the Party’s strategic direction both in opposition and in Government, including:
NPP National Executive Committee, serving as a Member from 1992 to date
Economic Management Team
Finance Committee
He is also a Founding Member of the Young Executive Forum (YEF), a powerful advocacy and lobby group within the Party which played a major role in galvanizing the professional and business community to support the growth and development of the party, as well as mobilize a new generation of party faithful and young leaders. As Chairman of YEF from 1992 to 2001, he symbolized the essence and spirit of the new generation of party leaders. In 1996, he was sponsored by YEF as a Presidential Candidate although he later voluntarily withdrew his candidature to pave way for his older colleagues in the Party.
Hon. Kyerematen has been one of the privileged few to have held membership of the National Executive Committee for over a decade, under the successive Chairmanship of Mr. B.J. DaRocha, The Right Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey, H.E. Odoi Sykes and Mr. Harouna Esseku. As a result of his contribution to strategy development within the Party, he was appointed as a Member of the NPP/CPP Great Alliance Negotiating Team in 1996.
As Head of Ghana’s Diplomatic Mission to the United States of America between 2001 and mid-2003, he was considered the NPP Government’s top foreign envoy and performed with distinction over the 18-month duty tour. His significant achievements include:
Establishment of the US-Ghana Economic Council, a high-level advocacy and advisory group established to deepen economic relations and bilateral trade between Ghana and the United States;
Coordinating Government’s re-negotiation of the Westel agreement with Western Wireless as well as the VALCOP Agreement with Kaiser Aluminium Company
Coordinating the implementation of the first Investment Forum in the United States to showcase the economic potential of each of the 10 regions of Ghana
Establishment of the first web-based Ghana Skills Bank, an interactive database designed to document and facilitate access to Ghanaian professionals and experts worldwide.
Initiated plans for the establishment of a Ghana Diaspora Investment and Private Equity Fund.
Developed an “Operation Save Your Schools Program” for Ghana residents in the United States to assist their alma mater primary, middle and secondary schools.
Developed an “Operation Save Your Schools Program” for Ghana residents in the United States to assist their alma mater primary, middle and secondary schools.
In 2003, Alan Kyerematen was appointed as Cabinet Minister with responsibility for Trade, Industry and the President’s Special Initiatives (PSI). In that capacity, he spearheaded the development and implementation of innovative business oriented programs that have become new strategic pillars of growth for the transformation of the Ghanaian economy.
Concrete manifestations of these special initiatives are:
An $8.5 million state-of-the-art factory, which produces high grade industrial starch from cassava for export to key markets in Europe, Africa and Asia. The starch initiative created over 10,000 jobs and piloted a new innovative approach in rural industry development based on the concept of Corporate Village Enterprises. In addition, it is considered as a model in linking developing countries into the global supply chain through industrial agro-processing. The first industrial starch company has been certified as a global supplier of high grade starch to Nestle operations worldwide.
The construction of a multi-million dollar enclave within the Tema Free Zone, dedicated to garments manufacturing for the export market by Ghanaian entrepreneurs. The enclave is also being extended and converted to accommodate similar facilities for Furniture Manufacturing and an ICT Park, thus converting part of the Free Zones into a Multi-purpose Industrial Park.
The revival of the Oil Palm industry in Ghana, achieving a phenomenal growth in seedlings supply from 250,000 seedlings per annum in 2001 to 4 million seedlings, from thirty nursery sites. Program initiated under which over 100,000 hectares of palm plantation is being cultivated.
Mobilizing new investments to expand Salt mining operations in Ghana and provide a stable raw material base for the development of a caustic soda industry to feed other manufacturing industries.
Ghana’s non-traditional export sector has grown from $400 million in 2000 to the level of almost $1 billion in 2006.
The roll-out and implementation of the Districts Industrialization Program, a comprehensive program for rural industrialization involving the setting up of at least one medium-sized factory in each the 138 administrative districts in Ghana.
As Minister for Trade and Industry, he has coordinated Government of Ghana’s trade policy agenda in respect of multilateral trade negotiations, including WTO, EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreement and ECOWAS. He played lead roles in both the WTO Cancun and Hong Kong Ministerial Meetings, particularly during the latter, in which he was one of the privileged few amongst Trade Ministers in the World, to have been appointed as a member of the Chairman’s Consultative Group. He was also the only Trade Minister from Africa to have been selected as a panelist on Trade during the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos.
He has also led the negotiation and development of bilateral trade and economic relations between the Government of Ghana and its major trading partners, including UK, USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, Denmark, South Africa, Nigeria, etc.
He has been a lead member of the NPP Government team promoting Ghana abroad and attracting and facilitating foreign direct investment into the country, and has also been responsible for developing a comprehensive internal trade and import management portfolio aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of local products, promoting fair trade and protecting consumer interests. He is also noted fro his achievements in promoting Made-in-Ghana products through campaigns such as the highly successful “National Friday Wear” program and the establishment of the National Product Gallery.
Under his direction, a comprehensive National Trade Policy has for the first time in the history of Ghana been launched as a major plank in Government’s strategy for accelerating and sustaining economic growth and increasing incomes and employment. The Trade Policy provides clear and transparent guidelines for the implementation of Government’s domestic and international trade agenda. In addition, he has led the process of preparing a comprehensive $200-million implementation blueprint, called the Trade Sector Support Program (TSSP), which was launched in October 2005.
The major component activities being implemented under the TSSP include the establishment of Export Trade Houses, which will promote Made-in-Ghana goods abroad, the establishment of a “Furniture City” - an enclave for the manufacture of wood export products, the establishment of product galleries to promote Made-in-Ghana goods locally and the establishment of a Technology Innovation Center for Capital Goods Manufacturing. He has also negotiated a $45 million facility with the World Bank to promote SME development in Ghana.
Another major achievement of the Hon. Minister has been to develop the Trade Ministry into a professional service organization, with the Ministry having been restructured into strategic business units with an efficient program coordination and management system.
As the Minister responsible for the new consolidated Ministry of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and President’s Special Initiatives, he is currently responsible for managing the National Medium Term Private Sector Development Strategy, which gives him oversight responsibility for all private sector development activities implemented across various Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
Hon. Alan Kyerematen’s professional and political career, as reflected in this profile, is no doubt a testimony of a unique combination of skill, vision, determination and competence which clearly marks him out as a distinguished leader in contemporary Ghana.
Source: Allan 4 President
Source: Allan 4 President
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