Joseph Kwadwo Tuffour holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in Economics from the University of Benin-Nigeria, and Master of Philosophy and BA in Economics from the University of Ghana. He has been a Development Economist, Small Business and Socio-Economic Researcher for over 14 years. His specific areas of expertise include International Macroeconomic Policy Issues and Analysis, Small Business Economics and Management, and Corporate Governance and Firm Outcomes among others. In addition, he is experienced in survey design, data collection and analysis as well as external public debt analysis, students’ research mentoring and academic programme development. He has played key roles in socio-economic baseline surveys and evaluations. He has 27 academic publications in refereed journals and book chapter. He is a lead author of Business Statistics for Managers book and Manual for Statistics for Decision Making. Prof. Tuffour is a Fellow Certified Economist with the Chartered Institute of Economists-Ghana, a member of African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) network of Facilitators (for Public Sector Economics on the Collaborative Master of Arts Programme) and Board Member of Youth Opportunity and Transformation in Africa (YOTA, formerly YES-Ghana), a youth research and advocacy think tank based in Ghana.

He is currently an Associate Professor in Applied Economics and Acting Director, Research and Consultancy Centre of the University of Professional Studies, Accra. Before attaining this level, Prof. Tuffour has been Coordinator of Research, Vice Dean of the Evening School and Vice Dean-School of Graduate Studies. He lectures at the School of Graduate Studies and has successfully supervised several graduates (masters and doctorates) theses and undergraduate dissertations in UPSA, GIMPA and NIBS. Prof. Tuffour has expertise in undergraduate and graduate degree curriculum development. He has led different committees to successfully developed 7 academic programmes and 4 technical policies (including plagiarism policy, MPhil/MSc thesis and MBA project work guidelines for UPSA).

Internationally, Prof. Tuffour has participated, presented papers and served as expert panel member for international and domestic workshops and conferences organised by AERC-Kenya, UN-WIDER-Finland, Kettering Foundation-USA, CIEM–Vietnam, Uongozi Institute-Tanzania, European Commission-African Union Commission-Cote d'Ivoire, YES-Ghana, ICBMED-UPSA-Ghana, iSTEAMS-Nigeria-Ghana, etc. His past research works include: leadership and microfinance (for Uongozi Institute), capitation education (for NHIA), Development of National Policy Framework for Local Content in the Mining Industry of Ghana (Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources), Facilitator for the USDA-Ghana Poultry Project Mentorship Programme, wages, incomes and employment (ISSER-ILO), trade liberalization and oil palm supply chain (ILO), formation of larger businesses, economic profile of mining communities (ISSER), socio-economic baseline of mining communities (Ghana Chamber of Mines), Program Expansion study for Kosmos Innovation Centre among others.

Prior to joining academia, he was the Research Officer with the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Research Officer (Ghana Cocoa Board) and Research Officer (Ghana Chamber of Mines).