Kofi Adjepong-Boateng, the merchant banker, has been awarded a CBE in Queen Elizabeth II’s 2020 Birthday Honours List for services to Philanthropy. Commander of the British Empire, CBE, is the highest ranking of the Orders of the British Empire award. It’s followed by OBE and then MBE. The list was published on Saturday, 10 October 2020.
Mr. Adjepong-Boateng moved from Ghana to the United Kingdom in the early 1980s and then moved to South Africa in the mid 1990s to set up the First Africa Group in partnership with S.G.Warburg & Co. –at the time the largest merchant bank in the UK. First Africa was acquired by the Standard Chartered Bank Group in 2009 whereupon Mr. Adjepong-Boateng became a Vice Chairman at the bank.
He is currently a non-executive senior adviser at Credit Suisse A.G. In addition to this role, he serves as Chairman of the investment committee of the Soros Economic Development Fund founded by George Soros, the billionaire investor.
Mr. Adjepong-Boateng is based at King’s College, Cambridge and holds a research position at the Centre for Financial History at Cambridge University. He is a previous chair of the Policy Committee at the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and was on the Board of Trustees of SOAS, University of London.
Mr. Adjepong-Boateng joins a number of past African recipients of UK Honours, including President Thabo Mbeki who was awarded a Knighthood in 2000; Sir Sam Jonah who was awarded a Knighthood in 2002; and Sir David Adjaye, who was awarded an OBE in 2007 and subsequently knighted in 2017.
The Ghanaian State has in turn also bestowed honours on notable British citizens. In November 2018, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo conferred Ghana’s highest National award, the “Companion of the Order of Star of Ghana” on Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.
