Who wins the 2024 Ghana Bar Association presidency?

The Ghana Bar Association (GBA), a professional association of lawyers in Ghana, is set to election its next president at its 2024 annual general conference which will take place at the Great Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) from Monday, 9 to Friday, 13 September 2024.

Themed: “Peaceful, Fair and Transparent Election; The Key to Sustainable Democracy,” the 2024 annual general conference will be the last to be presided over by the outgoing GBA president, Yaw Acheampong Boafo who after serving as the national secretary of the GBA, got elected at the 2021 Bar conference as national President for a three-year term.

Yaw Acheampong Boafo took over the leadership of the Bar Association from Anthony Forson Jnr after he exited office having served a full three-year term without seeking re-election. Yaw Acheampong Boafo beat Efua Ghartey, by 605 votes (52.83%) to 540 votes (47.16%) in the election held as part of the 2021 annual Bar conference which was held at the Fountain Gate Chapel, Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Region.

Three years on, Efua Ghartey is making a return bid for the GBA presidency. Her main contender this time round is Agbesi Kwadzo Dzakpasu, who is a nine-year junior to Efua Ghartey. Mrs Ghartey was called to the Bar in 1991 as compared to Mr Agbesi Kwadzo Dzakpasu, who was called to the Bar in the year 2000.

Efua Ghartey

Efua Ghartey is co-founder of Ghartey & Ghartey. She graduated from the University of Ghana, Legon in 1991. She also has a Certificate in Basic and Advanced Securities from the Ghana Stock Exchange and a Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution awarded jointly by the California State University, Sacramento Centre for African Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the University of Ghana, Legon, Centre for International Affairs.

Efua is a Barrister, Solicitor, and Notary Public. Efua Ghartey is a member of the International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA) and has held several executive positions in FIDA (Ghana). She has actively participated in FIDA’s mediation, conciliation and settlement procedures.

Since 1992, she has served as Chairperson/Member/Secretary of several Boards and Organisations involved in various activities centred on children, education, aviation, export financing, media, and publishing.

Apart from serving on several committees of the Ghana Bar Association, she was a member of the National Executive of the Ghana Bar Association for ten years. When the Chief Justice’s Annual Mentoring Programme was initiated in Ghana in 2007, she was the Moderator/ Speaker for 10 years.

She is the Immediate Past President of the Greater Accra Branch of the Ghana Bar Association, a position she held for 6 (six) years, and was a member of the National Council of the Bar Association for a collective period of 16 (sixteen years).

As Head of Chambers at Ghartey & Ghartey, she oversees all the Firm’s practice areas. She, however, focuses on Investment Law, Corporate Law, Corporate Litigation, and Company Law. She also oversees the Firm’s Private Client practice directly. She has considerable experience in litigation and has appeared before all the courts in Ghana, including the Supreme Court.

Mrs Ghartey is also well-versed in the practice area of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and has served as a Mediator in the Court-connected ADR system introduced at the Commercial Division of the High Courts on several occasions.

Efua Ghartey was the Chairperson of the Global Board of the United Bible Societies Worldwide from November 2016 to November 2019, after serving on the Global Board for seven (7) years. Efua has also completed a six-year tenure as Chairperson of the Bible Society of Ghana after serving on the Board in Ghana for fifteen (15) years. She served her term successfully as the Chairperson of the Board of World Vision Ghana after being the Vice Chair and a member for nine (9) years.

Agbesi Dzakpasu

Agbesi holds an LLM (Banking and Finance) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (2003) and an LLB from the University of Ghana (1998). Agbesi has a particular interest in banking and finance, litigation, energy, pensions, real estate, media, and mining.

He was an Associate at Akuetteh Kudoadzi and Co until early 2004. Agbesi completed the Ghana School of Law in 2000 and was admitted to the Ghana Bar the same year. He is a member of the Ghana Bar Association and also a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN).

Agbesi is currently the Board Chairman of Pensions Alliance Trust, a leading pensions administrator in Ghana. He also serves on the Board of Media General Ghana Limited, owners of TV3 Network Limited, and several commercial radio stations.

Mr Dzakpasu had previously served on the Board of Ghana Grid Company and was the Company Secretary and Secretary to the Board of the Ghana National Gas Company from its inception until February 2016.

Who gets elected

In the upcoming election, will Mrs Efua Ghartey who is the wife of a leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and a long-standing member of the Bar Association, (Joe Ghartey), be elected to serve as the first female president of the Ghana Bar Association or will her challenger, Mr Agbesi Kwadzo Dzakpasu who is said to have the support and endorsement of lawyers who identify as members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), get elected? Your guess is as good as mine!

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra 

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