Mona Helen Quartey: Deputy Minister Of Finance Nominee

The president, over the weekend, nominated Mrs Mona Helen K. Quartey, a risk management and corporate finance expert, to be vetted to become a Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. With specialization in Broad Treasury, Risk Management and Corporate Finance in the corporate and government environments, Mrs Quartey has over two-decade working experience in the financial sector. With an excellent international experience in equity and debt raising in Africa, Europe and North America over the years, she has a strong structuring and negotiations skills and a wealth of work experience in the mining and finance industry. Work experience She has been a partner at BVM Financial Advisory Services since 2008. The company provides advisory services to the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, the Volta River Authority on Crude Oil Hedging Programme and an international organisation, Fletcher International based in North Carolina, USA. From January 2000 to March 2003, she worked at BVM where she helped in establishing client base of private sector corporate bodies, state-owned enterprises and the government of Ghana by providing debt and equity raisings, capital markets advisory mandates, treasury and risk management activities. Mrs Quartey also worked at Citibank NA, Maryland, USA, from May 2007 to September 2008 as a Business Banking Officer, where she managed the banking portfolio of small to medium size business clients whose annual revenue was below US$5million. At the Citibank NA, she also provided business banking services, including credit facilities, cash and asset management and assistance with Small Business Administration (SBA) services. From April 2004 to April 2007, she worked as a Financial Executive with Citicorp Investment Services, Maryland, USA, where she managed businesses with financial portfolios in excess of US$ 20 million and also provided financial planning and client advisory services to both retail clients and small to medium size businesses. She had worked as a financial advisor with extensive knowledge of the domestic and international capital markets, equity and bond markets at the American Express Financial Advisors Inc. Columbia, Maryland, USA, from July 2003 to March 2004, and her work focused primarily on client acquisition, marketing and execution of transactions, including bonds, stocks, mutual funds and other investment instruments. As a Group Treasurer with Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited from October 1991 to December 1999, Mrs Quartey managed the group�s extensive risk management systems, which included gold, foreign currency and interest rate hedging programme. She also managed the general treasury functions across the group, including liquidity management and short to medium-term investments. She played a vital role in the �Initial Public Offer� of Ashanti Goldfields on the London and Ghana Stock Exchanges, and then subsequently on the New York Stock Exchange, all between 1994 and 1997. She also structured and executed several project financing programmes, bridge financing and longer-term facilities for the group such as a US$270 million via a Revolving Credit Facility in 1997 (refinancing a 1995 US$185 million facility); US$250 million via issue of Convertible Note, US$60 Million Project Financing for Bibiani Gold Project in Ghana, US$60 million Project Financing for Siguiri Gold Project in Guinea and US$40 million Pre-paid Forward Sale Facility for Freda-Rebecca Mine in Zimbabwe. She was also involved in corporate strategy transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, valuation analysis, greenfield development as well as served as a director of several companies within the Ashanti Group and Technical Advisor to Ashanti Treasury, Isle of Man, UK. From July 1991 to October 1991, Mrs Quartey worked with Ecobank Ghana in Accra as a Treasury Analyst where she managed the day-to-day asset/liability position of the bank, assisted in credit analysis of large customers, currency trading, and financial risk management. Current directorship Mrs Quartey serves as a director of Golden Star Resources � Gold Mines since 2010, Green Pastures and Still Waters Limited since 1999, Ghana Water Company Ltd, 2014, SIMNET Ghana Ltd, since 2013 and BVM Finance Advisory Services Ltd, since 2000. She is also an immediate past Director of Merchant Bank (Ghana) where she served from July 2009 to December 2013 as Chair, a member of the Risk Management Committee and the Audit Committee. From December 2010 to December 2013, she also served as a Chairperson of the Merchant Investment Holding Ltd. Education / training From April 2003 to 2007, Mrs Quartey secured USA brokerage qualifications Series 7 and 66, where she majored in Euromoney courses, including Treasury Management, Corporate Finance, Project Finance and Risk Management. In Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, in 1991, she graduated with a Master�s in Business Administration, majoring in Finance and International Marketing. In 1987, she was awarded a Bachelor of Science (Honours), Planning, by the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. Mrs Quartey completed her �A� Levels at the Labone Secondary School in 1982 after she had attained her �O� Levels in Science and Advanced Mathematics at Achimota School in 1980.