ACCRA, Jan 11 (AFP) - Ghana's new President John Kufuor late Wednesday
named a series of ministers to his government. Kufuor, 62, who was sworn in
on Sunday ending 19 years inpower by Jerry Rawlings, nominated 11
ministers, his office said in a fax to AFP.


Hackman Owusu-Agyermang was given the foreign affairs portfolio while Kwame
Addo-Kufuor was nominated as defence minister and Alhaji Malik Yakubu
Alhassan received the interior portfolio. Yaw Osafo Maafo was named finance
minister, Nana Akufo-Addo justice minister and Kofi Apraku trade and
industry minister. Courage Quashiga got the agriculture portfolio and J.H.
Mensah parliamentary affairs. Kufuor, known as the "gentle giant" for his
stature and shy manner, was elected in a second-
round runoff on December 28
with 56.73 percent of the vote against 43.27 percent for John Atta Mills,
the outgoing vice-president and Rawlings' successor designate.


Sunday's swearing in of Kufuor and his vice-president Aliji Mahama was the
first transition from one democratically elected president to another since
the former British colony achieved independence in 1957.


Rawlings, 53, a former flight lieutenant who took power in a coup on new
year's eve 1981 and was elected president in democratic polls in 1992 and
1996, was not allowed to stand for a third term.


At his swearing-in Kufuor pledged to fight poverty and corruption,
leading Ghana to prosperity, progress and peace. Kufuor said he had been
given "a mandate to renew our pride and self-esteem," following decades in
which democratic governments have been the exception rather than the rule.
In general elections held
at the same time as the first round of the
presidentials on December 7, Kufuor's New Patriotic Party came within a
whisker of winning an absolute majority with 100 members in the 200-seat
parliament, to 92 for Rawlings' National Democratic Congress. The NDC had a
comfortable 133-seat majority in the outgoing parliament.


The ministerial nominees:

- J.H. Mensah, Majority leader and Minister for
Parliamentary Affairs

- Yaw Osafo Maafo, Minister of Finance

- Nana Akufo-Addo, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice

- Gladys Asmah, Minister for Women's Affairs

- Hackman Owusu-Agyermang, Minister of Foreign Affairs

- Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Minister of Defense

- Kofi Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry

- Courage Quashigah, Minister of Agriculture

- Alhaji Malik Yabuku Alhassan, Minister for the Interior

- Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of
 Lands and Forestry

- Dominic Fobih, Minister of Science, Technology and
  Environment

 ben-il/bm

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