Ghanaian Entrepreneur and Vice Presdent of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Bright Simons has expressed his views on President John Dramani Mahama’s recent cut down on government ministries and a potential reduction of ministers.
As a way of honouring his promise of cutting down on government expenditure, President Mahama has reduced the number of government ministries to 23 from 30 under the previous government, while also emphasizing to work with only 60 ministers as promised compared to 124 ministers during the immediate past President Akuffo-Addo’s administration.
In a X post, Simons shared a lengthy write up on the ramifications regarding the reduction in ministries, as far as budget and government effeciency are concerned.
1. Ghana’s new President has reduced the number of government ministries to 23 from the previous 30 in line with his campaign promises.
2. Composing ministries is more art than science. At one point, Ghanaian Presidents felt that “youth and sports” should fit with “education” and that “water resources” best aligns with “works and housing”. Justification is rarely offered.
3. Looking at the new list, some might argue that “water resources” fit best with “land and natural resources” and that the same ministry should handle “environment”. “Innovations” should probably cluster with “Science and Technology”. But I doubt anyone cares.
4. Because, frankly, the usual concern about “number of ministers” is primarily about optics and symbolism. The people just hate “obscenely” long Ministerial lists.
5. Cutting down the number of ministries and ministers is thus more about “public sentiment reading” than about “government efficiency”.
6. For real cost savings, the thousands of workers in collapsed ministries would need to leave instead of being redistributed as happens now. In any event, ministries are merely the tip of the iceberg. 98% of public sector workers and government business reside in agencies. State-owned enterprises like GNPC and ECG matter in every respect of spending efficiency than 60% of ministries.
7. Hence why, in the past, cutting ministries led to no appreciable drop in the “office of government machinery” budget.
8. Ministerial budgets are a real hotchpotch. The Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs gets less than $5 million a year. The funny Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs gets barely $600k a year. These are merely titles dressed up as organisations.
9. Then there are the giant ministries. Health, education, Roads & Highways, and the Interior. Education gets a cool $2 billion a year, more than 20% of the total govt budget in most years. In fact, in 2024, the budget of the Ghanaian ministry of education was twice that of the Nigerian federal ministry of education. Even if you add up all public spending on education in Nigeria, Ghana’s ministry still spends more. It is a true behemoth. The Health Ministry gets a billion dollars a year. Health & education spending reform would thus eclipse any savings made from “truly abolishing”, say, 5 ministries. Abolishing, not just dropping titles.
10. Anyway, the issue of how to save money across the government is a very broad and multifaceted one. The biggest area is actually in debt management. Then capital expenditure. And finally procurement related to general government operations. Only then does one even get to payroll issues. Ministerial perks should be on the list somewhere, for sure, perhaps on page 17 of the memo, in between stationery and guest house management. Fuel coupons, useless workshops, and travel imprest are all certainly higher up.
11. In short, the issues plenty. And Mr. President has only 4 years. So, the work dey – plenty. But God too dey.
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