Jacob Kwakye-Maafo

Jacob Kenneth Kofi Kwakye-Maafo (born 1940), also known as Nana Ohemeng Awere V, is a Ghanaian physician and a surgeon who specialises in Obstetrics and Gynecology and traditional ruler of Assin Nsuta and the chief executive of the West End Hospital, Kumasi.

A past president of the Ghana Medical Association, he is an advocate of community health and has helped establish several health centres, rural hospitals and clinics in the Ashanti Region of Ghana notably the Ankaasi Faith Healing Methodist Hospital and the Lake Clinic at Amakom near Lake Bosomtwi.

Jacob Kenneth Kwakye-Maafo had his primary education at Awisa Presbyterian Boarding School, Akim-Awisa, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, from 1944 to 1953.

In January 1954 he entered the Abuakwa State College.

In January 1959, he entered sixth form at the Opoku Ware School in Kumasi, where he passed his Cambridge High School Certificate in 1960.

In August 1961 he was awarded the Ghana Government Scholarship to study Medicine in Germany where he studied German at the University of Leipzig and University of Greifswald in 1962; he was admitted to the Freie University of Berlin, under the German/Ghanaian Scholarship Programme DAAD.

He graduated as a Medical Practitioner after passing the State Examination (Staatsexamens) in September 1968.

In 1971 he was awarded the Doctor of Medicine (MD) Degree at the Freie University, Berlin (MB, ChB).

After qualification, he worked in several hospitals in Berlin including the Rudolf VIRCHOW, Westend Klinikum and the Frauenklinik am Mariendorferweg.

As a committed and patriotic citizen, Kwakye-Maafo returned to Ghana in January 1972 to serve his country in several capacities.

He served as a medical officer and then as a senior medical officer in many hospitals, namely, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, the Mampong Maternity Hospital, and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra.

In 1979, Kwakye-Maafo with the help of his wife Mercy established the West End Clinic, named after the ‘Westend Klinikum’ in Germany.

The clinic started initially as an outpatients’ clinic, but has over the years developed into a 40-bed hospital with theatre facilities for both minor and major surgeries.

The hospital is now a referral centre to clients within and around the Kumasi metropolis.

He was a member of the committee set up by the government of Ghana in 2003, tasked with the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana.

Kwakye-Maafo is the elder brother of Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the former finance minister during the John Kufuor administration and Isaac Adjei-Maafo, who was a Minister of Agriculture and later head of the Ghana Cocoa Board during the PNDC era.

On 19 December 2005, he was installed the Chief of Assin Nsuta and the ‘Benkumhene’ or Divisional Chief of the Assin Apimanim Traditional Area in the Central Region under the Stool name of ‘Nana Ohemeng Awere V’.

Kwakye-Maafo is married to Mercy, a retired general and psychiatric nurse.

Together have three children Fred, Marion, Harry and several grandchildren.

He currently resides in the Ashanti region of Ghana.

A staunch Methodist, he also provides consultancy to the Methodist church hospitals in Ghana.