President Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo has appointed a former Provost of the College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana Medical School, Prof Yao Tettey, as the Chairperson of the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) Governing Board. The appointment follows the death of Prof Charles Antwi Boasiako, the two times Board Chairperson who passed away in November 2023 following a short illness in the United Kingdom.
A letter from the Office of the President signed by the Chief of Staff, Hon Akosua Frema Osei- Opare stated that the appointment was under Section (5)(1)(2) of the Biosafety Act, 2011 (Act 831).
His appointment comes at a time when the NBA is sustaining gains made over the period in regulating biotechnology, especially in the approval of the registration of 14 events for food, feed or for processing in the country and other emerging biotechnologies notably genome editing, gene drive and modelling among others.
Prof. Yao Tettey is a Professor of Pathology and a former provost of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana. He also served as a consultant Pathologist at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and a past president of the West African College of Physicians. He obtained his M.B, Ch. B. from the University of Ghana in 1982, and holds a DCP Diploma in Clinical Pathology (Royal Postgraduate with Distinction) completing Medical School at the University of London in 1990. Prof Tettey is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians (FWACP), Faculty of Laboratory Medicine and a Foundation Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians (FGCP). As an academician, his research interests have been in the areas of autopsy as an epidemiological tool in the study of tropical diseases, Genotyping of Hepatitis E virus in pigs and pig handlers in Accra and Ghana Prostate Health Study with over 50 publications to his credit.