On Wednesday Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama appointed a new defense minister in a cabinet reshuffle which also saw the dismissal of the interior and agriculture ministers but left other key portfolios unchanged.

No reason was give for the cabinet shake-up, the first since Mahama took office in January last year after winning the West African nation's December 2012 presidential election.

The president is under pressure to turn around the economy of the cocoa-, oil- and gold-producing nation, once regarded as one of Africa's hottest frontier markets but saddled with high inflation and a stubbornly wide government deficit.

Benjamin Bewa-Nyog Kunbour, majority leader in parliament and a former attorney-general, replaced Defense Minister Mark Woyongo who has been moved to the interior ministry, a presidency statement said

Fiifi Kwetey, minister of state at the presidency, was named agriculture minister to replace Kofi Humado.

The key ministers of foreign affairs, finance, and energy and petroleum were retained.

Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former head of Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization was appointed as Trade Minister.

Mahama also realigned parts of the government structure and merged some ministries.