Father of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and uncle of president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has died.
Dr. Akwasi Jones Amoako Atta Ofori-Atta died in the afternoon of Monday, November 30, 2020 at aged 82 leaving behind a wife and five children including Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta.
Dr. Jones Ofori Atta would have turned 83 years old on December 7, 2020.
Minister of Inner-City and Zongo Development, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid who announced his death in a post on social media described him as a stalwart of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition.
Born on December 7, 1937, Dr. Jones Ofori Atta is a politician and an economist.
He was a visiting lecturer at the University of Manchester from 1966 to 1967. In 1967, he was appointed lecturer in economics at the University of Ghana where worked for two years.
Dr. Jones Ofori Atta was elected as a Member of Parliament for Begoro Constituency on the ticket of the Progress Party and was subsequently appointed as Deputy Minister of Finance under the K. A Busia regime of the Second Republic, a position he held until the overthrow of the Busia government in 1972 by the Supreme Military Council.
At the inception of the Third Republic, he was again elected as an MP for Begoro Constituency on the ticket of the Popular Front Party, an offshoot of the Progress Party. While in Parliament, he also served as the opposition Spokesman on Finance and Economic Planning. Dr. Jones Ofori Atta served these roles from 1979 until 1981 when the Third Republican Constitution was overthrown.
In the 1992 Elections, he contested for the Fanteakwa Constituency seat on the ticket of the newly-born New Patriotic Party (NPP) but lost to a candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He, however, disputed his defeat.
In 1996, he contested for the presidential candidature of the NPP but lost.
Dr. Jones Ofori Atta served as Chairman of the Volta River Authority (VRA) under president John Agyekum Kufuor’s regime.
