Mahamudu Bawumia

Mahamudu Bawumia (born October 7, 1963, Tamale, Ghana) is a Ghanian economist, banker, and politician affiliated with the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He has been vice president of Ghana since 2017. Bawumia was a candidate in the presidential election held on December 7, 2024: he was defeated by John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Early life and family

Bawumia was born to Hajia Mariama Bawumia and Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia in Tamale, in northern Ghana. He has several siblings, as he is the 12th of his father’s 18 children, and the second of his mother’s five. His father worked as a teacher and a lawyer and was also a politician who held various roles in government over his career. His father was among the founders of the Northern Peoples’ Party, which, after a series of mergers over the years, became the New Patriotic Party in 1992. Bawumia’s father was Muslim, and his mother was Methodist. She later converted to Islam, as did Bawumia, and he continues to practice that faith. While speaking about peace and religious tolerance in Ghana, he has pointed to his own family as an example: his parents initially were of different faiths, he was a member of Methodist Boys’ Brigade as a young child, and he has some siblings who practice Christianity, while others practice Islam. In 2004 Bawumia married Samira Ramadan. They have four children.

Education, career as an economist, and entry into politics

Bawumia completed his primary and secondary education in Tamale. He moved to the United Kingdom to continue his education, where he studied economics at the University of Buckingham (B.S., first-class honors degree, 1987) and Lincoln College, Oxford (M.Sc., 1988). He lectured at Emile Woolf College of Accountancy in London from 1988 to 1990 before continuing his economic studies at Simon Fraser University in Canada, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1995.

After receiving his Ph.D. Bawumia served as an assistant professor of economics at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, from 1996 to 2000. He returned to Ghana and began working at the Bank of Ghana that year. Over the next several years he held various posts at the bank, including assistant to the governor of the bank, and in 2006 he was appointed deputy governor of the bank.

Bawumia was thrust onto the political stage when he was selected as Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vice presidential running mate on the NPP ticket for the December 2008 elections. Although they won the first round of the election with more than 49 percent of the vote, they fell short of the requirement of winning with more than 50 percent. They advanced to a runoff election held later that month, where they faced the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ticket of presidential candidate John Evans Atta Mills and his running mate, John Mahama. This time, Akufo-Addo and Bawumia lost by a razor-thin margin, taking 49.77 percent of the vote to Mills and Mahama’s 50.23 percent.

In January 2009 Bawumia, who had been on a leave of absence from his deputy governor post while campaigning, resigned from that role. He spent the next few years holding various economics-related positions, such as serving as a consultant to the Economic Commission of Africa (2009), and working at the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford (2009–10) and African Development Bank for Zimbabwe (2011–12).

In preparation for Ghana’s December 2012 elections, Bawumia was again named as Akufo-Addo’s running mate on the NPP ticket; the NPP was among several parties and an independent candidate contesting the presidency. Akufo-Addo and Bawumia lost in the first round to Mahama, who was now the NDC’s presidential candidate after the unexpected death of Mills earlier that year. Their loss was again by a narrow margin (47.74 percent to Mahama’s 50.7 percent), as was the margin above the threshold needed to avoid a second round, and Bawumia, Akufo-Addo, and the NPP challenged the results in the Ghanian Supreme Court. Bawumia was among those who testified in the case. The court dismissed their challenge, however, and upheld Mahama’s victory.

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The NPP again selected the Akufo-Addo–Bawumia ticket for the 2016 elections. Several other parties and one independent candidate vied for the presidency in the December 7 poll, and Mahama once again represented the NDC. This time Akufo-Addo was declared the winner, with about 53.8 percent of the vote in the first round. Akufo-Addo and Bawumia were inaugurated on January 7, 2017.

Vice presidency

As vice president Bawumia took an active role, often putting his experience as an economist to use. Shortly after his inauguration Akufo-Addo named him to head the government’s economic management team. Bawumia has pushed for digital innovation across many sectors, which has streamlined the delivery of some government services, and he has introduced initiatives such as the Ghana Card, a biometric national identification card that can be used to access a variety of services, including health care and banking.

Akufo-Addo and Bawumia were reelected in the December 2020 election, in which Akufo-Addo was one of a dozen candidates, including Mahama, seeking the presidency. In spite of the crowded field, Akufo-Addo and Bawumia won a bit more than 51 percent of the vote in the first round of voting. During their second term, Ghana’s economy took a hit from multiple factors: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, drought conditions, and the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022. Although the government took measures to address the issues and stabilize the economy, in 2022 it defaulted on the country’s external debt and received a bailout from the International Monetary Fund in 2023.

Presidential aspirations

With Akufo-Addo constitutionally barred from standing for a third term, the NPP had to select a new standard-bearer to be its candidate in the presidential election scheduled for December 2024. At the party’s primary, held in November 2023, Bawumia emerged victorious. He later chose Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who was the country’s energy minister, to be his vice presidential running mate. As Bawumia campaigned for the presidency, he highlighted his accomplishments during his eight years as vice president, as well as his plans for bolstering the economy in the future. He faced criticism, however, given Ghana’s recent economic troubles that had occurred while he was part of the incumbent administration.

The election was held on December 7. Bawumia was one of 12 candidates running for president; he and Mahama, who was again representing the NDC, were considered the front-runners. Bawumia placed second after Mahama, who had won more than 56 percent of the vote.