George Yaw Gyan-Baffour

Professor George Yaw Gyan-Baffour is a development economist who represented Wenchi in the Bono Region for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) from 2005 to 2021 and served as Minister for Planning in President Akufo-Addo's first government. He was born in Wenchi on 27 March 1951.

Howard professor

Gyan-Baffour studied economics at the University of Ghana, took a diploma at the Helsinki School of Economics and earned his master's and PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 1993 to 2001 he was a professor of management at Howard University in Washington.

National planning

When the NPP came to power, President Kufuor appointed him Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission in 2002. He set up Ghana's first system for tracking national development and oversaw the Coordinated Programme for the Economic and Social Development of Ghana.

Parliament and cabinet

He resigned in 2004 to run for Wenchi, won, and held the seat through 2016. He was Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning from 2005 to 2008. In 2015 he publicly opposed the Mahama government's decision to seek an IMF programme. In January 2017 Akufo-Addo nominated him as Minister for Planning. Haruna Seidu of the NDC now represents Wenchi.