Hanna Tetteh

Early life and education

Hanna Tetteh was born in Szeged, Hungary to a Ghanaian father and Hungarian mother. Her secondary education was at the Wesley Girls High School at Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana from 1978 to 1985. Between 1986 and 1989, she studied law at the University of Ghana where she obtained the Bachelor of Law (LL.B) degree. She then attended the Ghana Law School, becoming a Barrister-at-Law in 1992.

Career

Hanna Tetteh did her National Service as a Legal Officer with the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) from 1992 to 1993. After completing her National Service she worked in Private legal practice with the Law firm Ansa-Asare and Company, of Hencil Chambers in Accra, Ghana. After two years of private legal practice she joined the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice as a Legal Officer, but later that same year, she joined the Ghana Agro Food Company (GAFCO) as a Legal Adviser. GAFCO was a food processing company that produced wheat flour, poultry and animal feed, fishmeall and canned tuna. The company also marketed other food and veterinary products and was located in the Tema Harbour Area in Tema she held other management positions in the company namely Human Resources and Legal Services Manager and thereafter Deputy General Manager (Finance and Administration Manager until she went into politics in 2000. After serving a term in Parliament she did not immediately contest for re-election and re-joined GAFCO as General Manager (Corporate, Administration and Legal) where she worked until December 2008.

Politics

Hanna Tetteh won the Awutu Senya constituency seat in the December 2000 parliamentary election and served for one term as a National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament on the opposition benches. She did not contest her seat in the next election. She was elected as a National Executive Member of the National Democratic Congress in 2005 and in 2008 she was appointed as National Communications Director of the NDC, replacing John Dramani Mahama, who had become the vice presidential candidate of the NDC as the running mate of John Atta Mills, the party's presidential candidate. The 2008 presidential campaign and the role she played in managing the party's communication strategy for that election made her a more prominent political figure and she became one of the main spokespersons for the NDC.

After the NDC victory in the 2008 elections she became the Spokesperson for the newly elected Government while the process of making new appointments was ongoing and in February 2009 President John Atta Mills nominated her for the position of Minister of Trade and Industry. Following her confirmation by Parliament she took over the portfolio and held the position of Minister of Trade and Industry from February 2009 to January 2013. During her tenure as Minister of Trade and Industry she was also a member of the Government's economic management team, a member of the board of the Millennium Development Authority responsible for the oversight of the implementation of the first Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact in Ghana, she also served on the National Development Planning Commission, and was the Chairperson of the Ghana Free Zones Board.

Following the death of President Atta Mills in 2012, John Dramani Mahama succeeded him. He also appointed her as the Communications Director for his 2012 election campaign. She also decided to contest for a parliamentary seat once again and was elected to the newly created Awutu Senya West constituency seat in the December 2012 election. She was nominated by President Mahama as Minister for Foreign Affairs and appointed as such in January 2013 after parliamentary approval. When President Mahama became the Chairman of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in March 2014, she became the Chairperson of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers at the same time.