Kwamena Ahwoi is a Ghanaian academic and politician. He was the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development from 1990 to 2001 in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, during the reign of Jerry Rawlings.

He was also for a brief time in 1997, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Kwamena was born on October 13th, 1951 at South Suntreso in Kumasi Ghana. The fourth child out of eight children, his siblings include Kwasi Ahwoi and Ato Ahwoi and four others. He lost his father at a young age and his mother in January 2020, at the age of 97.

He obtained an 'O level' certificate from the Okuapemang Secondary School and attended o Opoku Ware School where he was in the dining hall perfect. He also formed a political party called the Student Action Front.

He also attended the University of Ghana to study Law and received a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University as his post-graduate course in 1975.

From 1982 to 1993, he was a lecturer at the University of Ghana's Faculty of Law. On 31 December 1981, he was moderating a new year class in Legon when Jerry John Rawlings asked him to report to the Gonda Barracks of the Ghana Armed Forces to join the PNDC.

He is currently a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration as a Governance Professor. He acted as a special aide to Jerry John Rawlings between January and August 1982. His job was to negotiate with President Shehu Shagari of Nigeria to restore oil supply to Ghana. President Shehu Shagari had truncated oil supplies to Ghana in protest of the 4 June revolution.

Kwamena was part of the 27, who developed a roadmap when the country was moving to its fourth republic. They developed the District Political Authority and Modalities for District Level Election which was popularly called the 'Blue Book'. He also served as Director of the Office of Revenue Commissioners, Investigations and Tribunals, between 1982 and 1988.

During the regime of the PNDC, he was the Secretary for Local Government and Rural Development and also the acting secretary for Foreign Affairs.

He resigned as a director of research for the NDC in 2005.

Books

Decentralisation in Ghana: A Collection of Essays

Enhancing the Decentralisation Programme: District Assemblies and Sub-structures as Partners in Governance

Local Government and Decentralization in Ghana

Working with Rawlings

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