Quick Facts
Biography
Ernest Kwamina Yedu Addison, PhD is a Ghanaian economist and the fifteenth and current Governor of the Bank of Ghana. He had previously worked with the central bank as Director of Research from 2003 to 2011. He had worked the African Development Bank prior to his appointment as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
Early Life
Dr. Addison attended the elite Mfantsipim School, a Methodist College in Cape Coast with alumni such as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. After Mfanstipim he went to the University of Ghana for his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from 1982 to 1986. He proceeded to Cambridge University for his Master of Economics from 1987 to 1989 and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics degree from McGill University in 1993.
Working Life
Dr. Addison joined the Bank of Ghana in 1995 as an economist and rose through the ranks to become the Deputy Chief and Head of the Economic Analysis and Policy Division of the Research Department. During his ternure at the bank he was a member of several committees including the Open Market Operations Committee, Money Market Auction Committee and the Editorial Committee and also secretary to the Financial Programme Implementation Committee and the Financial Policies Committee. He chaired an Economic Community of West African States Task Force set up by the Authority of Heads of State of ECOWAS to perform feasibility studies culminating in the setting up of the West African Monetary Institute. Dr Addison was served as the Chief Economist with the West African Monetary Institute from 2000-2003. Prior to leaving the Bank of Ghana he worked under Kwesi Amissah-Arthur who was the governor and later became the Vice President of Ghana. In 2012 he was a Lead Economist at the African Development Bank’s Southern African Resource Centre in Pretoria, South Africa.
Appointment as Governor
In March 2017 Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo the president of Ghana forwarded Dr. Addison's name to the Council of State for consideration and approval as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana. This was to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of the then governor Dr. Abdul Nashiru Issahaku. He was subsequently approved and then appointed as the governor of the Bank of Ghana on April 1, 2017.
Other positions
Ernerst Addison, PhD because of his position as Governor automatically serves a member on many Government of Ghana agencies that deal with financial policy and management. They include:
- Board member of Ghana Cocoa Board