The Vice President and Flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia turns 61 years today. He was born on October 7, 1963, in Tamale to Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia, former Chairman of the Council of State (1992-2000) and Hajia Mariama Bawumia, both of blessed memory. He was born into a large family and the 12th of his father's 18 children and the second of his mother's five children. His father was a teacher, lawyer and politician and a Mamprugu Royal and Paramount Chief of Kperiga in the Northern Region. Dr Bawumia is married to Samira Ramadan Bawumia, the only daughter of Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, the former PNC National Chairman. Dr Bawumia and Samira have four children. Dr Bawumia often celebrates his birthday with the less privileged persons and the vulnerable in society such as the cured lepers, street children. He makes donations to children's wards in some health facilities. Dr Bawumia is now the Presidential Candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), seeking the highest office of the land as President of the Republic. Educational Background He began his basic education at the Sakasaka Primary School in Tamale and gained admission to Tamale Secondary School in 1975. He was President of the Ghana United Nations Students' Association (GUNSA) in 1981. After his second cycle education, he went to the United Kingdom where he studied banking and obtained the Chartered Institute of Bankers Diploma (ACIB). He obtained a First-Class Honours Degree in Economics from Buckingham University in 1987. He then obtained a master's degree in economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics at the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1995. His areas of specialisation include Macroeconomics, International Economics, Development Economics and Monetary Policy. Role as Head of EMT Dr Bawumia heads the Government's Economic Management Team (EMT), which oversees the macroeconomic management of the country. Over the past seven years, Dr Bawumia has championed the government's digitisation agenda leading to the digitisation of various public institutions, with an instance as the rolling out of the National Property and Digital Addressing System, with over five million houses tagged with property addresses so far. Mobile Money Interoperability System He was instrumental in implementing the Triangular Mobile Money Interoperability Payment System at a reduced cost of $4.5 million, instead of the $1.2 billion the previous government announced as the cost for implementation. Recovery from COVID-19 pandemic Dr Bawumia was part of the Akufo-Addo's Administration that steered the country from the Covid-19 pandemic which struck the entire globe in late 2019, wreaking havoc on all economies of the world. The pandemic affected global supply chains, and the response put a burden on public finances. In Ghana, for instance, inflation, exchange rate depreciation and debt levels globally hit a 40- year high as countries scrambled to cope with the impact on liv es and livelihoods. Ghana's inflation increased from 12.9% in December 2021 to 54% by December 2022 with an attendant depreciation of the Ghana cedi by 30% in 2022. There was also the Russia-Ukraine war that started at a time when the world was yet to recover fully from some major challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 'With what we have done and continue doing in the wake of the global challenges, the outcome, thus far, points to an auspicious future' Vice President Bawumia once said at an economic forum in Accra. Gold for Oil programme Dr Bawumia also spearheaded the 'Gold for Oil' programme that enabled oil marketing companies to purchase crude oil on the world market exchanging gold for oil. The innovative programme has relatively cushioned the local currency, the Cedi, against the major trading currencies. BoG's Gold Purchase Programme The Vice President was also instrumental in the Bank of Ghana's (BoG) Gold Purchase Agreement, which enabled the Central Bank to buy 30 per cent of gold produce d locally by gold mining companies to shore up the country's gold reserves, and eventually strengthen the local currency and safeguarding it from frequent depreciation on the global trading market. Source: Ghana News Agency