Edward Omane Boamah

Edward Kofi Omane Boamah was a Ghanaian physician and politician of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He was Minister for Communications and presidential spokesperson under John Dramani Mahama, and Minister of Defence from February 2025 until he was killed in a military helicopter crash on 6 August 2025.

Early life and education

He was born on 26 December 1975 in Nkawkaw to Edward Kwame Omane and Leticia Asante, and came from Koforidua Effiduase in the Eastern Region. He attended Koforidua Presby 'B' School, Nana Kwaku Boateng Experimental School and Pope John Senior High School and Minor Seminary, then trained as a doctor at the University of Ghana Medical School. He later earned a master's degree in health policy, planning and financing from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. As a student he was president of the National Union of Ghana Students.

Government

He was Deputy Minister for Environment, Science and Technology from 2009 to 2012, chairing inquiries into an oil-based mud spill by Kosmos Energy at the Jubilee field and a cyanide spill by Newmont at Kenyase, and then Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, coordinating Ghana's team at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. In February 2013 President Mahama made him Minister for Communications. He set up the National Computer Emergency Response Team, oversaw Ghana's first National Data Centre and the Eastern Corridor fibre-optic backbone, and from 2014 to 2017 also served as presidential spokesperson.

After 2017 he returned to medicine at Afrah International Hospital. In 2024 he became the NDC's first combined Director of Elections and IT, and built the collation system the party used in the 2024 election.

Minister of Defence

He became Minister of Defence on 1 February 2025, with priorities that included soldiers' welfare, settling hidden defence debts, the fight against illegal mining and a drive to recruit 12,000 new soldiers.

Death

On 6 August 2025 he was flying to Obuasi for an anti-galamsey event when the Ghana Armed Forces Z-9 helicopter carrying him crashed in the Adansi area of the Ashanti Region, killing all eight people on board. Among them was the Environment Minister, Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed. The victims received a state funeral in Accra on 15 August 2025. He was married to Rita Adubea Offei, a chartered accountant, and they had two daughters and a son.