Dr Kwesi Botchwey

He has lectured in universities in Ghana and Nigeria and was a protégé of Kwesi Botchwey who as Finance Minister pioneered the country's economic reforms and Structural Adjustment Programmes in 1982-1996...

In his 1995 budget Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey criticised GNPC's loans as a drag on the economy...

Two other heavyweights back in the NDC are Paul Victor Obeng unofficial prime minister to Rawlings for over a decade and the internationally respected Kwesi Botchwey Ghana's longest serving Finance Minister...

Another former Rawlings ally Obed Yao Asamoah had hoped Kwesi Botchwey would head his new Democratic Freedom Party (DFP)...

The DFP aspires to persuade the former Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey to stand as its presidential candidate...

Others who have fallen out with the Rawlingses include former security boss Kojo Tsikata; ex-Finance and Economic Planning Minister Kwesi Botchwey; and former 'prime minister' Paul Victor Obeng...

' The third pillar is Value Added Tax the most unpopular measure proposed since the economic reform programme was launched by NDC's Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey in 1983...

Kwesi Botchwey in 1994...

More defections are expected as the fallout spreads from December's acrimonious leadership battle between Professor John Atta-Mills (Vice-President under Rawlings 1997-2001) and Kwesi Botchwey Rawlings' much-admired Finance Minister from 1982 until his dramatic resignation in 1995...

The opposition New Democratic Congress will start campaigning for the 2004 elections with flagbearer John Atta Mills (backed by ex-President Jerry John Rawlings) after he beat former Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey (backed by party Chairman Obed Asamoah) for the nomination...

Two Fanti law professors from Central Region former Vice-President John Evans Atta Mills and former Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey are battling for nomination as the presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress at its national conference in December...

As African governments and the United Nations belatedly hammer out the message on HIV-AIDS campaigners for cheaper drugs - such as the HIV retrovirals and anti-malarials - will take centre stage backed by economists such as Harvard's Jeffrey Sachs and Ghana's former Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey...