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Ghana’s Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, celebrates his 59th birthday on this day, October 7th 2022.

A relative unknown in Ghanaian politics just a decade and a half ago, Bawumia has undergone an incredibly meteoric rise to stardom in just under two decades, a trajectory that has never been seen and would probably never be matched.

From a cushy job as a banker, Bawumia ventured into politics after being called upon to serve his country and immediately excelled.

Now, on the back of his intelligence, political acumen, business savvy and impeccable public speaking, he has become an ubiquitous part of our political discourse and has consequently written his name into the history books.

To celebrate him on his big day, we take you on a tour through the brilliant life and career of the man who has become known as Mr Digital.

Early Life and Education

Mahamudu Bawumia was born on the 7th of October, 1963 to Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia and Hajia Mariama Bawumia. He was named after the late Ya-Naa Mahamadu Bila.

Bawumia was the twelfth of his father’s eighteen children and the second of his mother’s five.

His father, Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia was a teacher, lawyer and politician, a Mamprugu Royal and Chief of the Kpariga Traditional Area. He was a founding member of the Northern Peoples’ Party alongside Chief S. D. Dombo, Chief Abeifa Karbo, Yakubu Tali, the Tolon Naa, and J. A. Braimah, Kabachewura.

He held numerous positions in government including member of the Northern Territories Council, the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly, a Member of Parliament of the First Republic, Northern Regional Minister, and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He also served as chairman of the Council of State under the presidency of J. J. Rawlings from 1993 to 2000 in the 4th republic.

Bawumia started his education at the Sakasaka Primary school in Tamale. He later gained admission to Tamale Secondary School in 1975 and after graduating, went to the United Kingdom where he studied banking and obtained the Chartered Institute of Bankers Diploma (ACIB).

He took a First Class Honours Degree in Economics at Buckingham University in 1987. He then obtained a master’s degree in Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics at the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1995.

Academician and Banker

Following his education, the future Vice President held various roles in academia and banking.

From 1988 to 1990, Bawumia worked as a lecturer in Monetary Economics, and International Finance at the Emile Woolf College of Accountancy in London, England. He also served as an economist at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, USA.

Between 1996 and 2000, Bawumia served as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, USA.

He returned to Ghana in the year 2000 to work as an economist and banker with the Central Bank, the Bank of Ghana.

He rose from Senior Economist to Head of Department, and subsequently as Special Assistant to the Governor of the Bank.

In June 2006, former President John Agyekum Kuffour appointed Bawumia as the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

Bawumia oversaw several significant reforms at the Bank of Ghana during his time there, including spearheading the establishment of the Ghana Interbank Payment Systems (GHIPPS) common platform for all banks, savings and loans companies and rural banks, offering interoperability across different financial institutions.

That was an important precursor to the later mobile interoperability facet of his digital agenda.

Bawumia notched other achievements at the Bank of Ghana, including heading the Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Department which designed and implemented the inflation-targeting framework that continues to guide monetary policy and the workings of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of Ghana.

The inflation-targeting framework established reduced inflation from over 40% in 2000 to 10.2% by 2007.

He was part of the team that designed and implemented the successful redenomination of the cedi and also led the Bank of Ghana’s technical negotiation team and was on the government team that negotiated with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund since 2001 through HIPC and PRGF.

Rise to Political Stardom

Bawumia’s rise to national prominence kicked off in 2007, after he was tapped by then New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential candidate for the 2008 elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to be his running mate.

Akufo-Addo had been enthralled by the brilliant academic credentials of the Deputy Bank of Ghana governor and realised his analytical mind and love for figures could be put to use in the political arena.


It helped immensely that Bawumia was also a gifted public speaker and took to politics like a duck to water.

Despite losing the 2008 elections after a run-off, the NPP significantly increased their vote share across all three Northern Regions due to the Bawumia factor.

However, the legend of Bawumia only became most established after the contentious 2012 elections which the NPP lost but heavily contested in court.

The party argued, convincingly in court, that the electoral process had been wrought with irregularities.

Dr Bawumia excelled as the NPP’s star witness, going toe-to-toe with lawyer for the respondents and universally acclaimed as one of Ghana’s most brilliant lawyers, Tsatsu Tsikata.

Bawumia more than held his own and was hailed all over the country for his brilliance, eloquence and calmness under pressure. His insistence on sticking to facts on the ‘face of the pinksheet’ earned him the affectionate nickname, Dr Pinksheet.

His stock soared ever higher after the 2012 petition despite the NPP losing, and when it was time for the 2016 elections there was no question whom Nana Akufo-Addo would choose once more as his running mate.