H.E. John Dramani Mahama is President of the Republic of Ghana. Sworn in on 7 January 2025, he is the first person in Ghana’s history to be democratically elected to a non-consecutive second term. In February 2026 he was elected First Vice-Chairperson of the African Union Assembly’s Bureau, and ECOWAS has endorsed Ghana, under his leadership, to chair the Union in 2027. His agenda includes the 24-Hour Economy policy and the US$10 billion Big Push infrastructure programme, and he has committed to providing the reliable power supply needed for round-the-clock production.

Born in Damongo in today’s Savannah Region, President Mahama earned a BA in history from the University of Ghana in 1981 and completed postgraduate studies in communication there in 1986. He then received a postgraduate degree in social psychology from the Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow in 1988. First elected to Parliament for Bole-Bamboi in 1996, he became Deputy Minister for Communications in 1997 and Minister from 1998 to 2001.

He became Vice President in January 2009 and assumed the presidency in July 2012 after the death of President John Evans Atta Mills, then won the December 2012 election and served until January 2017. He chaired the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government from March 2014 to May 2015 and the African Union’s High-Level African Trade Committee, and in 2016 was appointed co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s SDG Advocates. He is the author of the memoir My First Coup d’État (2012).

President Mahama is African Union Champion on the AU Financial Institutions and on Reparations. He has called for faster implementation of the African Central Bank, African Investment Bank, African Monetary Fund and Pan-African Stock Exchange, describing the investment bank as pivotal to financing energy, transport and ICT infrastructure. In September 2025 he launched the Accra Reset initiative at the UN General Assembly, and he has urged a shift from raw material extraction towards high-value manufacturing.