John Mahama

John Mahama
Mahama in 2014
12th & 14th President of Ghana
Assumed office
7 January 2025
Vice PresidentJane Naana Opoku-Agyemang
Preceded byNana Akufo-Addo
In office
24 July 2012  7 January 2017
Vice PresidentKwesi Amissah-Arthur
Preceded byJohn Atta Mills
Succeeded byNana Akufo-Addo
Second Vice Chairperson of the African Union
Assumed office
15 February 2025
PresidentJoão Lourenço
5th Vice President of Ghana
In office
7 January 2009  24 July 2012
PresidentJohn Atta Mills
Preceded byAliu Mahama
Succeeded byKwesi Amissah-Arthur
Minister for Communications
In office
November 1998  7 January 2001
PresidentJerry Rawlings
Preceded byEkwow Spio-Garbrah
Succeeded byFelix Owusu-Adjapong
Deputy Minister for Communications
In office
April 1997  November 1998
PresidentJerry Rawlings
Member of Parliament
for Bole
In office
7 January 1997  7 January 2009
Preceded byMahama Jeduah
Succeeded byJoseph Akati Saaka
Chair of the Economic Community of West African States
In office
17 February 2013  19 May 2015
Preceded byAlassane Ouattara
Succeeded byMacky Sall
Personal details
Born
John Dramani Mahama

(1958-11-29) 29 November 1958
Damongo, then part of the Dominion of Ghana
Political partyNational Democratic Congress
SpouseLordina Effah
Relations
ResidenceJubilee House
EducationUniversity of Ghana
Moscow Institute of Social Sciences
WebsiteOfficial website

John Dramani Mahama (/məˈhɑːmə/ ; born 29 November 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who has been the 14th president of Ghana since January 2025. A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), he served as the 12th president from 2012 to 2017.

Mahama served as a Member of Parliament for Bole Bamboi from 1997 to 2009 and served as Deputy Minister for Communication between 1997 and 1998 before becoming the substantive Minister for Communications in 1998. He then served as the fifth vice president under President John Atta Mills from 2009 to 2012. Mahama took office as president when Mills died in office on 24 July 2012. Mahama is the first vice president to assume the presidency following the death of his predecessor, and is the first head of state of Ghana to have been born after Ghana's independence in 1957.

He was elected in the December 2012 election to serve a full-term as president. He contested re-election for a second term in the 2016 election, but lost to the New Patriotic Party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo. This made him the first president in the history of Ghana to not have won a consecutive second term. Mahama was again the NDC's presidential candidate in the 2020 election, where he lost to Akufo-Addo.

He was re-elected president in the 2024 election, defeating the then incumbent vice president Mahamudu Bawumia, making him the first president in Ghanaian history to be democratically elected to a non-consecutive second term.