From 1988 to 1990, Bawumia worked as a lecturer in monetary economics and international finance at the Emile Woolf College of Accountancy in London; England. He also served as an intern at the Research Department of the
International Monetary Fund in
Washington, D.C. Bawumia also served as resident representative of the
African Development Bank in
Zimbabwe. Between 1996 and 2000, Bawumia served as an assistant professor of economics in the Hankamer School of Business at
Baylor University in
Waco,
Texas, and USA, where he received a Young Researcher Award in 1998. He was listed in "Who Is Who Among America's Teachers” in 1999. He also published two books on monetary policy and economic development. Bawumia returned to Ghana in 2000 to work as an economist at the
Bank of Ghana. He rose from Senior Economist to Head of Department and subsequently served as Special Assistant to the governor of the bank. President
John Kufuor appointed Bawumia as
deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana in June 2006. At the Bank of Ghana, Mahamudu Bawumia • Served as head of the Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Department, he was part of the team that designed and implemented the inflation-targeting framework that continues to guide monetary policy and the workings of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of Ghana. The inflation-targeting framework established reduced inflation from over 40% in 2000 to 10.2% by 2007 (i.e., before the oil price shock of 2007/2008) while maintaining relative exchange rate stability. • Was part of the team that was instrumental in designing and implementing policy initiatives, such as the abolition of the secondary reserve requirements and the opening up of the banking sector to competition. This resulted in a major increase in the availability of credit to the private sector from 12.5% of
GDP in 2001 to 28.5% of GDP by 2008. • Led the Bank of Ghana's technical negotiation team and was on the government team that negotiated with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund since 2001 through
HIPC and
PRGF. Partly as a result of these negotiations, Ghana by 2007 successfully ended its dependence on
IMF assistance. • Served as a member of the government technical negotiating team on HIPC Paris Club and Completion Point Negotiations. Ghana completed the HIPC process successfully with significant debt relief of close to $4 billion. • Was a member of the Government Team to Negotiate the
Millennium Challenge Account Compact with the US government. The MCA resulted in many significant projects, such as the George Bush Highway. • Was a member of the Government Technical Team on the Deregulation of Ghana's Petroleum Sector. • As chairman of the Capital Markets Committee, was responsible for the strategy for accessing the international capital markets with a debut
US$750 million, which was four times oversubscribed. • Was part of the team that designed and implemented the successful redenomination of the cedi. Through this process, the cedi was considerably strengthened. Significant savings were also made by the Bank of Ghana in currency printing costs. • Was involved in the design and implementation of the e-zwich common platform for all banks, savings and loans companies and rural banks, offering interoperability across different financial institutions. • As the deputy governor in charge of financial stability, oversaw the soundness of the banking sector. • As deputy governor, Bawumia served on the Boards of the Bank of Ghana, Ghana International Bank (UK),
Ghana Telecom, Revenue Agencies Governing Board,
Social Security and National Insurance Trust. Shortly before the 2008 election, Bawumia resigned as deputy governor at the
Bank of Ghana.
2008 elections Mahamudu Bawumia was running mate to the New Patriotic Party candidate in the 2008 elections, Nana Akufo-Addo. The NPP increased its share of the vote compared to 2004 in all the three Northern Regions, in both the first and second round.
2008–2011 Bawumia served as a consultant to the Economic Commission of Africa between February and March 2009. Between April and October 2009, he was a visiting scholar at the
University of British Columbia Liu Centre for Global Studies and
UBC Fisheries Centre. Between October 2009 and October 2010, he was a senior research associate at the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford. In January 2011, Bawumia was appointed resident representative of the
African Development Bank for
Zimbabwe by the African Development Bank. He served in this position until reappointed as the vice-presidential candidate to Nana Akufo-Addo on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party for Ghana's 2012 presidential election. The party won 10 seats in the
Northern Region including Yendi, Walewale, Yagaba – Kubore, Bunkpurugu, Bimbilla, Chereponi, Kpandai, Tatale – Sanguli, Tolon and Zabzugu. It also won the Nabdam and Talensi Constituencies in the
Upper East Region. Overall, Nana Akufo-Addo and Bawumia lost the presidential elections to
John Dramani Mahama.
2016 elections Nana Akuffo-Addo appointed Bawumia as his running mate in the 2016 presidential election.
2024 elections On Friday, 16 June 2023, Bawumia filed his nomination to contest in the NPP Presidential primaries. As part of the presidential primaries, Bawumia picked the tenth position after balloting for the selection of five contest for the final selection of the presidential candidate for the NPP in the 2024 election. Bawumia, on 26 August 2023, won the super delegates congress election by the
New Patriotic Party with 68%, beating nine other candidates in the build up to the party’s national delegates congress to elect their flagbearer. Bawumia has been elected to lead the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for Election 2024 as flagbearer. Bawumia won NPP presidential primary with 61.43% of total valid votes cast which happened on 4 November 2023 at 276 constituencies across the country and the Party Headquarters, Asylum Down, Accra. On Tuesday, 9 July 2024, Bawumia unveiled Dr.
Matthew Opoku Prempeh as his running mate for the 2024 general elections. The unveiling took place at Jubilee Park in
Kumasi. On 8 December 2024, Bawumia conceded defeat to former President
John Mahama in an address to the media at his residence. == Personal life ==