Mr Marricke Kofi Gane, a 46-year old Independent Presidential Candidate for the 2020 General Election, with the campaign tagline, “Gane4Ghana” is a Chartered Accountant and a Management Consultant.
Known to many as Kofi Ghana, Mr Gane was born to a trader mother and an engineer father as the third of four children on July 19, 1974.
He had a modest upbringing, spending the most part of his childhood with his grandparents as his fisherman grandfather’s boy and proudly as a second-hand clothes (obroni w’awu) stall assistant to his grandmother on market days at Keta in the Volta Region.
He attended the A.M.E. Zion Primary School, Keta Secondary School and taught Chemistry at the Nkwanta Secondary School, as his national service.
Mr Gane who gained admission to study Chemistry at the University of Ghana, Legon, turned down the offer to rather pursue professional Accounting, graduating as a Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA) in a record of three years and attained full membership to the prestigious Accounting fraternity in 2002 while an Audit trainee with Messrs Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF).
The Independent Candidate played a co-audit senior role on Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), feasibility studies consultant for the potential revival of the then Pwalugu Tomato factory.
He audited the Benso Oil Palm Plantation among many others, opening up his appreciation of agricultural value chains. He lectured several ACCA, CIMA and ICSA courses in several institutions in Ghana.
In 2004, he relocated to the United Kingdom to study for a certificate in “Micro-finance for Development” at the University of Greenwich.
Like many Ghanaian Diaspora first timers, he experienced early frustrations in finding a role suited to his profession.
He believes “Economics, Development and Politics of any form must be about making the lives of ordinary people better.”
Mr Gane, while in the UK, worked as a security guard, a cleaner and construction site worker, jobs he reminisced shaped his understanding of the hustle of Diasporans and fondly referred to London as “The Leveler.”
He later gained admittance to work for world-class development, policy think-tank and
Diplomatic organisations such as Christian Aid, the Commonwealth Secretariat, International Alert, and Crown Agents.
He had served in various Accountant and Development Fund Manager roles, altogether managing a total of over £600 million worth of Development funds from OECD countries, serving more than 100 organisations spread across 25 developing countries, including Ghana.
His responsibilities covered due diligences, value for money audits, intra-national fiduciary-risk management, funding disbursements, fund accounting to Government agencies and project evaluations.
He proudly recounted that no single financial or operational irregularity accrued under his tenure – a proof of his integrity and accountability. He is currently a Director of Studies in selected Public Financial Management Subjects.
Mr Gane is a father of four – two males and two females, a Christian and a mentor to many young Ghanaians.
His overall vision is to see a Ghana built on which leaders embraced the value of always putting Ghana first, grounding its educational system in the science and competencies needed to solve her own problems, having a disciplined public sector which understood the future, enough to position Ghana well.
He also envisaged a Ghana which had citizens and businesses well equipped to stay relevant, and a Ghana of good health and shared equitable prosperity.
Seeing his decision to run for office as a duty rather than a motivation, Mr Gane wanted a Ghana that provided high quality education throughout. His quest was to create an educational system that focused on curiosity and experiential learning at all levels; and ensured that learning focused on competency skills, technical skills, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.
In the areas of health, he was ready to craft an aggressive agenda to shift from a funeral-economy to a pro-health economy, where his government would strengthen primary healthcare, free compulsory screenings to aid early detection and reduced secondary and tertiary healthcare pressures.
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