Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah

Politician, Lands and Natural Resources Minister

NationalityGhanaian

Profession Politician, Lands and Natural Resources Minister

Nationality Ghanaian

About Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah

Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah was born on 10 May 1966 in Atuabo, a community in the Ellembelle District of Ghana's Western Region. His early life was shaped by adversity: his father, a postmaster, died when he was seven years old, and his mother, who had no formal education herself, raised the children alone while ensuring they completed their schoolwork. Buah earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science from KNUST, a Graduate Diploma in Law from the University of Law in the United Kingdom, and a Master of Science in Management from the University of Maryland in the United States. Buah joined the NDC and became one of its most enduring parliamentary voices on natural resources policy. He has represented the Ellembelle Constituency since 2009, winning five consecutive terms in an area that sits at the heart of Ghana's oil belt in the Western Region. The Jubilee, TEN, and Sankofa offshore fields lie in or near Ellembelle waters, and Buah has spent much of his career working on the policy frameworks governing those resources. Under President John Atta Mills, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Energy in 2009 and played a key role in the Ghana Gas Task Force that produced the 2010 blueprint for the Ghana National Gas Company, a landmark initiative that brought Ghana into the era of commercial gas utilisation and reduced dependency on emergency power imports. When President Mahama appointed him Minister for Energy and Petroleum in March 2013, Buah oversaw development approvals and fiscal arrangements for the TEN fields and the Sankofa gas project, among the most consequential upstream decisions in Ghana's oil history. Back in opposition, Buah remained active on energy and mines committees and represented Ghana at international forums on responsible minerals supply chain governance. When the NDC returned to power following the December 2024 elections, President Mahama appointed him Minister for Lands and Natural Resources. In Ellembelle, his constituency legacy includes founding an elderly care centre, establishing a food bank, and running a skills training programme that has equipped over 2,000 young people with vocational qualifications.