By Gifty Boateng
A professor of financial economics at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Lord Kwaku Mensah, has revealed that in terms of political ideology, he is aligned to the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
As an academic, Prof Mensah said even though he is not a known member of the NDC, he can boldly say he is aligned to the party, having been appointed to serve in the John Mahama government.
The lecturer of many years was appointed the acting head of the Local Government Service (LGS), alongside other colleagues from Ghana’s premier university, by the president to head various institutions of state.
Some of these lecturers who were in the public space for years, offering professional advises and solutions on national issues are Prof Ransford Gyampo of the Ghana Shippers Authority, Prof Kobby Mensah as acting Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Development Authority Company and Prof Alidu Seidu as the acting boss of the Water Resources Commission and a host of others.
In an exclusive interview recently, Prof Mensah said he is not known to be an active member of the NDC but now that he is in government, and the government was birthed by a political party, he cannot stay a political but align to the party that has the same ideology as his.
“Not necessarily but then also you came to your office through a particular government and so of course I am a Ghanaian, so you expect me to be aligned to a particular party. So, it is expected that once you have the same ideology, the same thinking, I mean obviously, you may have to align”, he said on Joy Prime’s ‘Prime Morning’ hosted by Roselyn Lord Felli Kwasie.
Asked if he is now aligned politically, he responded in the affirmative saying “Yes of course”. He said even though his current position is not political, he is obligated to.
“Well, with the position I occupy, it is non-political position but of course once the ideology of the NDC aligns with yours as an academic, obviously you may have to fall in line”, he added.
Meanwhile, the native of Akyem Takrowase in the Eastern Region, has also said he will not mind standing on the ticket of the NDC as a presidential candidate in future election.
He said when President Mahama is done with his term, and he is approached to contest; he will take that step since he is qualified as a Ghana.
However, he will be do that when he has what it takes to financially hold a full-blown campaign to convince the electorates across the country to vote for him and the NDC.
“I am a Ghanaian, if I have the resources why not? In politics you need to invest a lot. I mean to move around the country and be convincing people that you are the person to be voted for. I mean it won’t be that easy, you will need the human resource, capital to do that. I won’t turn it down”, he said on the progtamme.
Academic Credentials
Prof Lord Mensah is a Full Professor of Financial Economics at the University of Ghana Business School, Finance Department to be specific. Prof. Mensah was awarded a Scholarship by the Research Foundations-Flanders Belgium to pursue his PhD in Applied Economics- Finance. He received his PhD in Applied Economics-Finance at the University of Antwerp, Belgium in 2011. He also earned his MSc in Financial Mathematics at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany in 2004. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2001.
Prof. Lord Mensah has attended and presented at many international conferences, including World Finance conference (Portugal), Swiss Society for Financial Market Research conference (Switzerland), Eastern and Mid-West France conferences both in the USA, Global Development Finance Conference, Durban, South Africa, International Econometric Conference of Vietnam, 18th International Academy of African Business and Development conference, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA, International Conference on Economics and Social Science, 2nd -3rd November, 2017, Singapore, International Forecasting Financial Markets Conference, Rennes, France. He has a lot of publications to his credit, which can be confirmed from Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar.
He has consulted for many local and international organizations including, The Central Bank of Nigeria, UNDP and the Bank of Ghana. He is the Executive Director of the African Centre for Development Finance and he speaks regularly on financial issues at corporate meetings and various media houses in Ghana. To demonstrate his experience in the area he teaches, Credit Risk Management, Operational Risk Management, Advanced Corporate Finance and Advanced Financial Econometrics at the graduate level at the University of Ghana Business School. He is part of a team who are training the state agencies on Public sector investment appraisal and risk management in Ghana. He has consulted for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to train their research department on Data Analysis and Financial Market Modelling. The training involves the use of excel to model data and its applications in the Financial Market. The consultant was also part of a team who were contracted by the ministry of finance through the Ghana Economic Policy and Research Institute (GEPARI) to train the research department of MoF and the Bank of Ghana on Macro-econometrics Forecasting using Eviews Econometric software.
Apart from the training, the consultant has worked for UNDP to develop guidelines for the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of Climate Finance, Ghana Climate Public Expenditure, and Institutional Review, all for Ghana. These guidelines were developed to identify the sources and uses of climate funds in Ghana. Through the same UNDP, the consultant has developed a framework for National Peace Council Fund, also to identify the sources and the uses of the fund. Prof. Mensah has also consulted for the Ministry of Trade and Industry to perform a cost-benefit analysis on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) projects.