MEET YOUR HERO
ALAN JOHN KYEREMATENG.
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE NPP FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GHANA.
Alan John Kwadwo Kyeremateng (born 3 October 1955) also known as Alan Cash is a Ghanaian politician and an International diplomat. Currently, he is running for the npp presidential candidate seat for a fourth time with the likes of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Kennedy Agyepong and others. He served as the Minister for Trade and Industry from 2017 to 2023.
Kyerematen was Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States and later Minister of Trade and Industry, Private Sector Development (PSD) and Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI) during Former President John Agyekum Kuffuor’s tenure of office . Kyerematen served as a trade advisor at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he coordinated the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC).
Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen was born on 3 October 1955 to Alexander Atta Yaw Kyerematen, a social anthropologist from Patasse, Kumasi, and Victoria Kyerematen (née Welsing) from Elmina and Ejisu. He was named after an archbishop of the Church of England, Alan John Knight who was the headmaster of the all-boys Anglican boarding school, Adisadel College in Cape Coast in the 1930s, and a mentor to his father, Alexander A. Y. Kyerematen who was then a student there and later, a head boy in his final year. A. A. Y. Kyerematen was the commissioner for Local Government during the National Liberation Council regime. In 1951, his father became the founder and first director of the Centre for National Culture located in Kumasi of the Ashanti Region and later on, he was appointed the mayor of Kumasi and the commissioner for local government between 1966 and 1969. Like his father before him, Alan Kyerematen attended Adisadel College for his secondary education, entering the institution at the record age of nine years after starting at then Asokore Mampong Secondary School now Kumasi Academy. He attended the prestigious Achimota School afterward for his sixth form education. He proceeded to the University of Ghana, Legon for a bachelor’s degree in Economics. Kyerematen also holds a law degree, LLB from the Ghana Law School at the same university where he qualified as a barrister-at-Law. He was called to the bar in Ghana and is a practicing attorney-at-law in Ghana. In addition, he is a Hubert Humphrey fellow of the School of Management at the University of Minnesota, U.S., having completed one year of management studies under the Fulbright Fellowship program at that institution.
Alan John Kyerematen has had an extensive and successful professional career in both the private and public sectors spanning over twenty-four years. He was a senior corporate executive with a subsidiary of Unilever International in Ghana where he became a junior manager at the age of twenty-two years.
He also worked for several years as a principal consultant and head of Public Systems Management with one of the leading management development institutions in Ghana, the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI).
In 1998, Kyerematen was appointed by the UNDP as the first regional director of Enterprise Africa, which was an Africa-wide, flagship initiative for the development and promotion of small and medium enterprises. Under that framework, he established enterprise support institutions and programmes in 13 Sub-Saharan Africa countries – Botswana, Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. Over 4,000 African entrepreneurs and small businesses have benefited from these programmes.
In 1990, Kyerematen was responsible for establishing and managing the EMPRETEC Programme in Ghana, a leading business development programme sponsored by the United Nations and Barclays Bank. He led the transformation of EMPRETEC from a UN project into an independent foundation, and as its founding chief executive, developed the foundation into a world-class institution that is recognized as a successful model and best practice institution for enterprise development in Africa.
Between 1984 and 1990, he participated in and managed several major private and public sectors consulting assignments in Ghana, as a principal consultant and head of Public Systems Management with the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), a leading management development institution in Ghana. Before this, he was a senior corporate executive with UAC Ghana Ltd, a subsidiary of Unilever International, where he worked in various managerial positions with distinction until 1984.
Kyerematen is a member of the Council of Governors of the British Executive Service Overseas (BESO) in the UK and also a board member of other organizations in Ghana.
In 1994, Kyerematen was listed by the Time magazine as one of the 100 global leaders for the new millennium, alongside Bill Gates, John F. Kennedy Jr., and others.
Kyerematen has been a leading stalwart and key strategist of the NPP since its inception in 1992. He is a founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and has also served on the highest decision-making bodies of the NPP that shaped the Party’s strategic direction both in opposition and in Government.
He served on the NPP National Executive Committee, serving as a Member from 1992 to 2001 as well as on the Economic Management Team and Finance Committee of the NPP. He is also a Founding Member of the Young Executive Forum (YEF), a youth advocacy and lobby group within the Party. As Chairman of YEF from 1992 to 2001, he symbolized the essence and spirit of the new generation of party leaders.
Coming from a mixed Akan ancestry of the Asante and Fante ethnic subgroups, he speaks Twi and Fante fluently. In addition, he speaks Ga and is proficient in French. He is married to Patricia Christabel Kyerematen (née Kingsley-Nyinah), the daughter of Joseph Kingsley-Nyinah who was an Appeal Court Judge and the Electoral Commissioner for Ghana between 1978 and 1981, including 1979 presidential election. They have two children – Alexander and Victor. Alan Kyerematen’s sister Bridget Kyerematen – Darko died in a gas explosion in January 2017. Alan Kyerematen along with his elder brother Stephen Kyerematen are managing directors of A Wealth of Women Ghana BKD (Bridget Kyerematen Darko),led by Dr. Sandi Williams, PhD a foundation formed to support their late sister’s work and legacy. The foundation is affiliated to A Wealth of Women.