Ghana's permanent representative to the United Nations, Nana Effah-Appenteng, has been elected Chairman of the fifth committee (Administrative and Budgetary) of the General Assembly.

He is the only African out of five other nationals to be elected. His election was by acclamation.

Prior to his appointment as Permanent Representative on May 2000, Effah-Appenteng served as the Supervising Director of Administration in Ghana's Foreign Ministry. Before that, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission (1993 to 1997) in the Ghana Embassy in Washington, United States.

He joined the Ghana Foreign Service in 1970, and has also served as Charge d'affairs and later as Counsellor/Minister Counsellor in the Ghana Mission in Moscow from 1986 to 1998, and as Deputy Chief of Mission in the Ghana Mission in Rome from 1988 to 1990.