British-born Ghanaian, Kwasi Kwarteng becomes UK’s first Black Finance Minister

The newly elected Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss has appointed business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng as the new finance minister, making Kwarteng the first chancellor of African heritage.

“He was born in East London in 1975, the same year as Ms Truss. His economist father and barrister mother gave him a traditional Ashanti first name, meaning “born on Sunday”, when he was actually born on a Monday. He told the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast his parents stayed silent on the matter when he jokingly pulled them up on it.”

Place of birth: East London

Age: 47 years

Education: Trinity College, Cambridge University, Harvard University

Family: Married to solicitor Harriet Edwards with one daughter

Parliamentary constituency: Spelthorne (Surrey)

Mr Kwarteng’s parents came to the UK from Ghana as students in the 1960s.

Britain economic problems are numerous including high taxes and high energy cost which are the challenges for the new prime minister. “The problem she is facing is that her talk of tax cuts, higher defense spending, and more money for the National Health Service has already spooked the British financial markets, where traders have been marking down sterling and U.K. government bonds over the past month or so, on concerns about a gaping budget deficit. The pound is now trading at its lowest rate against the dollar since the mid-nineteen eighties: about $1.15. Some analysts are raising the possibility of a fall to parity.”

Kwasi Kwarteng as the minister of finance is the point person to gear, sell and implement the economic policy and vision of Prime minister Liz Truss to the British citizens. And his educational background, experience and antecedent spells his readiness for the job.