George Ayittey

Ghanaian economist (1945–2022)

George B. N. Ayittey (13 October 1945 – 28 January 2022) was a Ghanaian economist and author. He was president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington, D. C., a professor at American University, and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He championed the argument that "Africa is poor because she is not free," that the primary cause of African poverty is less a result of the oppression and mismanagement by colonial powers, but rather a result of modern oppressive native autocrats and socialist central planning policies. He also went beyond criticism of the status quo to advocate for specific ways to address the abuses of the past and present; specifically he called for democratic government, debt reexamination, modernized infrastructure, free market economics, and free trade to promote development.

Ayittey attended Adisadel College in Cape Coast, Ghana for his secondary education. He obtained a B. Sc. in economics from the University of Ghana, in Legon, Ghana, a M. A. from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, and a Ph. D. from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Ayittey taught at Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska and Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1988 and 1989, he held a National Fellowship at the Hoover Institution, and then joined The Heritage Foundation as a Bradley Resident Scholar. In 2008, Ayittey was listed by Foreign Policy as one of the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" who "are shaping the tenor of our time."

George Ayittey's younger sister was the politician Sherry Ayittey.

Ayittey died on 28 January 2022, at age 76. and was buried on 8 April 2022.