Hajia Alima Mahama

Hajia Alima Mahama is a lawyer who became Ghana's first female ambassador to the United States, and a two-time cabinet minister under Presidents Kufuor and Akufo-Addo. She represented Nalerigu-Gambaga in the North East Region for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) from 2017 to 2021. She was born in Walewale on 17 November 1957.

Education

She attended Wesley Girls' High School in Cape Coast, studied law and sociology at the University of Ghana and was called to the Bar in 1982. She did postgraduate work in public policy at Rutgers University and in development planning and administration at the University of Ottawa, and took a master's in development studies at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague.

Kufuor government

Under Kufuor she served as a Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry and for Local Government, and then as Minister for Women and Children's Affairs from 2005 to 2009.

Local Government and Washington

She won Nalerigu-Gambaga in 2016, and President Akufo-Addo made her Minister for Local Government and Rural Development from January 2017. She lost the seat in 2020 to the NDC's Issifu Seidu. In June 2021 she was appointed Ambassador to the United States, serving until December 2024. She also sits on the leadership council of the Clean Cooking Alliance.