Dr Callistus Mahama has been appointed as Acting Head of the Local Government Service in accordance with section 15 (1) of the Local Government Service Act, 2003, Act 656.

This was contained in a statement signed by Hon. Akwasi Opong-Fosu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Monday.

The statement said Dr Callistus Mahama has considerable experience in local governance and decentralization and he served as a member of the Ministerial Expert Group for the review of Ghana’s decentralization in 2009.

He was also a member of the Local Government Service Council and an assembly member where he gained extensive knowledge in local democracy.

It said Dr Mahama is currently the Executive Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee (IMCC) Secretariat as well as the Deputy Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies.

The statement said Dr Mahama is a product of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Cambridge with many publications and consultancy assignments in the area of local governance and decentralization to his credit.