Abu Jinapor set to inspire the youth as youngest Minister

Samuel Abu Jinapor, a former Deputy Chief of Staff, is set to inspire the youth of the country, especially members of the governing NPP, in the execution of his mandate as the youngest Minister of State in the Akufo-Addo government.

The President has nominated him as the Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources. If approved by Parliament, he will be the youngest to occupy this portfolio.

The 37-year-old young lawyer’s appointment follows his election as the MP for the Damongo constituency in the Savannah Region, the first NPP candidate to have won that seat.

Background

A former student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Mr Jinapor was called to the Ghana Bar in 2012.

As a newly enrolled lawyer, he undertook his pupillage with Accra based commercial and corporate law firm Messrs Kulendi@Law from October 2012 to August 2013, where he studied under the tutelage of Yonny Kulendi, at the time a renowned lawyer, and now a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.

Mr Jinapor rose to become a Senior Associate at the firm where he acted as an advocate in major commercial and corporate litigation. Whilst with Messrs Kulendi@Law, Mr Jinapor acted as a transactional lawyer for several complex commercial negotiations, domestically and internationally.

As Senior Associate, he was periodically assigned to manage a team of lawyers from diverse backgrounds and had the rare responsibility of representing major foreign companies in Ghana as a solicitor and legal advocate, both in Ghanaian courts and Arbitral Tribunals.

Mr Jinapor holds Master’s Degree in Law (LL.M) in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) from the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana.

Political life

Mr Jinapor joined politics in 2004 and has since been a widely known political activist. His first foreign relations exposure came when, at an early age of 23, he accompanied President John Agyekum Kufour on his famous state visit to the United Kingdom (UK) in 2007 as a Communication Aide and made appearances on various media houses in the UK.

He was later appointed by President Akufo-Addo, then a presidential aspirant, as his Campaign Aide in the 2007 NPP presidential primaries and held this position for both the 2008 and 2012 general elections.

In the 2016 general elections, Mr Jinapor played a major political advocacy role for the NPP and its presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

In 2017, President Akufo-Addo appointed him as Deputy Chief of Staff, in charge of Operations, at the Presidency, at a youthful age of 33, the youngest in the history of Ghana to occupy the position. As Deputy Chief of Staff, he assisted the Chief of Staff by mobilising government machinery to support the execution of the President’s agenda for the country.

In 2020, he contested the Damongo parliamentary seat, which he won, beating the NDC’s two-term MP and ranking member for Energy and Mines, Adam Mutawakilu.