The Hope Of Ghana Youth In Sports: Kwadwo Baah Agyemang

Prosper Kay
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The Hope Of Ghana Youth In Sports: Kwadwo Baah Agyemang

Story by: Bernard Nyankomago Kwasi

As politicians gather their acts together to hit the various campaign platforms to canvass for votes whether in internal or national elections, Ghanaians, especially the youth will surely be waiting for their vision in sports development.

Over the years, one fine politician who has demonstrated great and good heart for sports, especially football is Honourable Kwadwo Baah Agyemang (KBA), former MP for Asante Akim North Constituency.

Apart from the opportunities he has given to some Ghanaian youth, particularly football talents in Asante Akim North through his SportsLife Academy, he has also followed the domestic league and national teams with keen interest.

KBA, as he is well known loves football to the hilt. It was therefore a step in a right direction when President Akufo Addo appointed him as Board Chairman for the National Sports Authority (NSA). He delivered his work to perfection despite the unnecessary pressure he encountered from some Ghanaians at a point in time.

He was also the President for Teqball Federation in Ghana and Chairman for Asante Akim North, South, Central and Bosome Freho District Football Association.

In addition to his vast contribution to sports and as means of serving his people, Hon. KBA further introduced Asante Akim Marathon which brought to limelight William Amponsah, Ghana’s current record holder in Long Distance. With this scintillating achievement, many expect him to assume the office of the Sports Ministry one day.

Very soon, the NPP will go to the polls to elect their Parliamentary candidates for the 2028 general elections. For the people of Asante Akim North Constituency, there is absolutely no need for any prophet to advice delegates, before they will give power to the visionary Kwadwo Baah Agyemang to help unearth the youth who have abundant talents and huge potentials in football especially.

Admitedly, there is no way sports can be sidelined when talking about avenues to create jobs for the youth in the country. This is where some politicians have failed to utilise over the years.

Since Ghana attained Independence on 6th March, 1957 – exactly 69 years ago, sports have always propelled the nation to great heights in the international front.

Talk of the world titles that boxing heroes like D.K Poison, Azumah Nelson, Ike Quartey, Joshua Clottey, Joseph Agbeko, Isaac Gogde and the likes have won for Ghana.

The Black Stars outstanding achievements on the continent in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982 can also not be ingnored likewise the exploits of our junior national teams in 1991, 1993, 1995 and the famour Black Satelites victory in 2009 in Egypt.

In athletics and other sporting disciplines, Ghana has incredibly paid their dues globally. But at moment, no Ghanaian is enthused with the state of our games.

The Black Stars, which used to be the nation’s biggest hope have failed miserably in all quarters. GFA President, Kurt E S Okraku and his so called Exco and management members have mismanaged and mishandled things leaving football enthusiasts in devastating and pensive mood.

It’s time to bring on board ex footballers, administrators and politicians who are endowed with deep knowledge in the game and Hon. Kwadwo Baah Agyemang should be one of them.

Jenora Kwaning to Defend Doctor of Philosophy in Public Law Dissertation at UIPM Indonesia

Jenora Kwaning
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Jenora Kwaning to Defend Doctor of Philosophy in Public Law Dissertation at UIPM Indonesia

Doctoral Viva Voce scheduled for Wednesday, 14 October 2026, to examine research on good politics, constitutional governance and the rule of law.

PhD Candidate Jenora Kwaning is scheduled to undertake his doctoral Viva Voce in Public Law on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, at the Universal Institute of Professional Management (UIPM), Indonesia.

The examination forms part of his Doctor of Philosophy in Public Law programme and will focus on his dissertation titled:

“GOOD POLITICS, CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNANCE AND THE RULE OF LAW: A PUBLIC LAW FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONSIBLE, ETHICAL, TRANSPARENT AND SUSTAINABLE POLITICAL PRACTICE.”

 

The Viva Voce is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. at the UIPM campus, with Google Meet also indicated as the examination venue.

The doctoral examination will provide an opportunity for Kwaning to present and defend his research before the academic committee, respond to questions and demonstrate his understanding of the legal and governance principles examined in his thesis.

The examination is associated with the Department of Public Law and the Committee on Graduate Studies.

Research Focus: Good Politics, Constitutional Governance and the Rule of Law

Kwaning’s doctoral research examines the relationship between good politics, constitutional governance and the rule of law, with a focus on developing a Public Law framework for responsible, ethical, transparent and sustainable political practice.

Public Law provides the legal and institutional foundations for understanding the exercise of public authority, constitutional responsibilities, administrative accountability and the protection of legal rights.

The thesis brings these principles into a broader discussion of political conduct, institutional integrity and the standards that can guide responsible governance.

By examining the intersection of law and political practice, the research seeks to contribute to academic discussions on how constitutional principles and legal frameworks can inform political responsibility, transparency and sustainable institutional development.

The study also raises questions about the relationship between legal accountability and ethical conduct in public institutions, as well as the role of constitutional governance in promoting responsible political practice.

Board of Professors for the Doctoral Committee

The doctoral examination is associated with a Board of Professors comprising senior academics and legal scholars with backgrounds in law, public law, government and political sciences.

The committee members and their stated roles are:

1. Prof. Dr. Jean Marc Aractingi
Chairman of the Board of Professors and Viva Committee

2. Prof. Dr. Ahmad J. Naous
Vice Chairman of the Board of Professors and Viva Committee | Professor of Strategy Execution

3. Prof. Dr. A. Junaedi Karso, SH
Chair, Supervisory | Professor of Public Law

4. Prof. Dr. R.R. Dewi Anggraeni
Co-Supervisor | Professor of Law & Government

5. Prof. Dr. Drs. Muh. Elia Wasono Mastoko
Co-Supervisor | Professor of Laws & Political Sciences

 

The committee’s stated composition reflects the multidisciplinary scope of the doctoral research, which connects Public Law with constitutional governance, political institutions and the principles of responsible political practice.

The Viva Voce will provide the formal academic setting for the candidate to explain the research, respond to questions and engage with the committee’s assessment of the thesis.

The Importance of the Viva Voce
A doctoral Viva Voce is an oral examination in which a candidate discusses and defends their thesis before appointed academic examiners. The process typically examines the candidate’s knowledge of the subject, the coherence of the research, the appropriateness of the methodology and the contribution the work may make to existing scholarship.

For Kwaning, the examination represents an important milestone in his Doctor of Philosophy in Public Law programme.

His thesis places the concept of good politics within a legal framework that considers constitutional principles, the rule of law, ethical responsibility, transparency and sustainability.

The examination will allow the academic committee to engage with the research arguments and assess the thesis in accordance with the institution’s applicable doctoral examination procedures.

The final academic outcome will depend on the committee’s assessment and the fulfilment of any requirements imposed by the institution.

Public Law and Responsible Political Practice

Constitutional governance and the rule of law are central subjects in contemporary legal scholarship. They inform discussions about the limits of public power, institutional accountability, administrative justice and the legal responsibilities of public authorities.

Kwaning’s research brings these themes together with the principles of ethical conduct, transparency and sustainability.

The proposed framework offers a basis for examining how Public Law can inform the standards and institutional arrangements associated with responsible political practice.

The subject is relevant to legal academics, governance researchers, policymakers, political institutions and students interested in constitutionalism, public administration and political accountability.

Through the doctoral examination, the research will undergo formal academic scrutiny concerning its arguments, methodology and potential contribution to the field.

Examination Details
– Candidate: Jenora Kwaning
– Academic Status: PhD Candidate
– Programme: Doctor of Philosophy in Public Law
– Examination: PhD Viva Voce
– Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2026
– Time: 11:00 a.m.
– Venue: UIPM Campus | Google Meet
– Institution: Universal Institute of Professional Management (UIPM), Indonesia
– Department: Department of Public Law
– Graduate Studies Body: Committee on Graduate Studies
– Institutional Website: www.uipm.ac.id

Dissertation Title: Good Politics, Constitutional Governance and the Rule of Law: A Public Law Framework for Responsible, Ethical, Transparent and Sustainable Political Practice.

As Kwaning prepares to defend his dissertation, the examination will mark a significant stage in his doctoral academic journey and provide a formal opportunity to discuss the relationship between Public Law, constitutional governance and responsible political practice.

Further information about the examination and its outcome may be communicated following the completion of the relevant academic procedures.

Lands Minister Armah-Kofi Buah joins 1,568 new lawyers at Bar

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Lands Minister Armah-Kofi Buah joins 1,568 new lawyers at Bar

Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah was called to the Ghana Bar on 9 October 2026, one of 1,568 new lawyers admitted by the General Legal Council.

The admission allows Buah, the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Ghana. As minister, he oversees land administration, mining and forestry, areas run largely through statute and regulation.

He was not the only cabinet member called that day. Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations Minister Samuel Nartey George was also admitted, along with Citi FM Eyewitness News host Umaru Sanda Amadu and former Eastern Regional Minister Seth Acheampong. Buah and George had attended a black-tie Call to the Bar dinner in Accra two days earlier, on 7 October.

The minister’s links to law go back to his student years. According to his ministry, Buah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science with a major in law from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He also holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from the University of Law in the United Kingdom and a Master of Science in Management from the University of Maryland. He was born at Atuabo in the Western Region in 1966.

Buah has represented Ellembelle since 2009. He served as Minister for Energy and Petroleum from 2013 to 2016 under John Mahama’s first administration. President Mahama named him Lands Minister in January 2025.

The ceremony was the Ghana School of Law’s 63rd Call to the Bar. It took place at the International Central Gospel Church’s Christ Temple on Teshie Bush Road in Accra. Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, who chairs the General Legal Council, opened the session. Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine also attended.

The cohort is large for a profession of Ghana’s size. The General Legal Council has said the number of lawyers in Ghana grew from just over 2,000 in 2010 to more than 6,500 in 2024.

The intake also comes during an overhaul of legal training. Parliament has passed the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2026, and Baffoe-Bonnie has said the new regime will widen opportunities while keeping standards. Under the changes, students can now choose to be enrolled at either an October or a March call.

Ghana’s tree crops regulator tightens rules as export push grows

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Ghana’s tree crops regulator tightens rules as export push grows

Ghana is trying to build a second farm export engine alongside cocoa, and its tree crops regulator is using licences, floor prices and traceability rules to get there.

The Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA), set up under the Tree Crops Development Authority Act, 2019 (Act 1010), regulates six crops: cashew, coconut, oil palm, rubber, mango and shea. Cocoa sits outside its remit, under the Ghana Cocoa Board. Chief Executive Officer Dr Andy Osei Okrah has set a target of about US$12 billion in annual revenue from the six crops by 2030, and has said they collectively have the strength to do far more for the economy than cocoa.

Whether that happens depends less on planting than on whether Ghana can prove where its crops come from, keep quality high and capture more of the value at home.

Enforcement first

The TCDA has moved from promotion to policing. At a stakeholder forum in Wa, Okrah warned that buying below statutory floor prices, trading without an operational licence and fronting for foreign buyers could lead to arrest and prosecution, as the authority rolls out its powers region by region under Legislative Instrument (L.I.) 2471. A digital licensing and traceability system is meant to enforce quality and moisture standards.

A mandatory conveyance certificate system now covers the movement of the six crops and ties into the Forestry Commission’s road checkpoints. Some traders have called it an extra burden. Okrah has rejected that, describing it as a tool to curb illegal trade and improve traceability. The authority has also deployed its first cohort of compliance and enforcement officers in the cashew trade.

Why proof of origin matters

Buyers in Europe and elsewhere increasingly demand evidence that commodities were not grown on deforested land and were produced without exploitation. For smallholder crops such as cashew and shea, which are often gathered across scattered plots and pass through several traders before export, that is hard to show. Okrah has named data and traceability among the authority’s top priorities, saying the sector needs reliable information on farmers, farms, production and trade.

Keeping more value at home

Ghana has long shipped most of its raw cashew nuts abroad, much of it to Asian processors. Under the government’s Feed the Industry initiative, L.I. 2471 allows the authority to reserve a share of raw materials for local processors. Okrah has also pushed commercial use of the cashew apple, usually discarded, and courted investors at the Ghana-UK Investment Summit in London in June, pointing to a global shea market projected at US$5.5 billion by 2033.

At the TCDA’s first summit and exhibition this year, President John Dramani Mahama announced a US$200 million government commitment to tree crop processing, productivity and private investment. The authority said the event drew about US$500 million in expressions of investor interest and outlined plans for 16,000 hectares of new plantations spread across all 16 regions.

Risks

Expansion brings exposure. Okrah has warned of climate change, pests and disease, citing powdery mildew in some cashew-growing areas. And floor prices only help farmers if buyers can be made to respect them in remote districts where the authority’s officers are thin on the ground.

The authority has said a farm inputs project launched at Asante Mampong in August will run from 2026 to 2032.

ACEP urges Ghana to keep Tullow ties after tax win

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ACEP urges Ghana to keep Tullow ties after tax win

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has warned Ghana not to treat Tullow as an adversary after winning a US$393 million tax arbitration against the oil producer.

The policy group’s Executive Director, Benjamin Boakye, said the state needs both the revenue from the Jubilee and Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) fields and the continued investment and production that generate it. “A commercial dispute should not turn a partner into an adversary,” he said.

The warning matters because the award lands as Ghana and the Jubilee partners are trying to extend the life of fields that have been the backbone of the country’s oil output. How the government collects the money will shape whether Tullow keeps investing in them.

An International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal delivered its award on 29 September 2026, dismissing all of Tullow Ghana Limited’s claims and upholding in full the Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) assessment of US$393,091,993.70 on business interruption insurance proceeds. The tribunal found the assessment did not breach the petroleum agreements, was not time-barred, carried a properly applied penalty and was lawfully enforced. The GRA issued the assessment in December 2022, and Tullow took the dispute to ICC arbitration in London in February 2023.

Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said on 30 September that the ruling showed every company in Ghana, whatever its size, is subject to the country’s laws. He also called Tullow a vital partner and the country’s largest petroleum producer, said the government had been talking to the company about settling outstanding tax matters before the award, and said those talks would continue. They will also cover separate proceedings over the disallowance of loan interest. Forson said the government would implement the award under Ghanaian law with due regard for continued operations in Jubilee and TEN and Tullow’s ability to keep investing. He noted that Ghanaian law lets the GRA decide the time and manner in which assessed taxes are paid.

Tullow said it was disappointed with the ruling but willing to discuss its implications and next steps with the government.

Boakye said that response showed how commercial disputes should work: each side makes its case, submits to the agreed process and pursues whatever lawful remedies remain. He urged the state to separate commercial disagreements from criminal conduct, arguing that a company challenging the government through arbitration should not, for that reason alone, be treated as an enemy.

He linked the case to Ghana’s ambition to become a seat of international arbitration. That status, he said, depends on predictable courts, independent adjudication, respect for contractual processes and confidence that state power will not be used to get around civil procedures, not on declaring the country an arbitration hub. Civil remedies may not always produce politically satisfying outcomes, he said, but they protect rights and reduce uncertainty for investors.

Ghana was represented by the Office of the Attorney-General, the GRA and external counsel Foley Hoag LLP.

Auditor-General warns 7,000 institutions of tougher evidence-based audits

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Auditor-General warns 7,000 institutions of tougher evidence-based audits

Auditor-General Dr Pamela Graham has told heads of about 7,000 public institutions to engage auditors early and back their answers with documents, as her office adopts technology-led, evidence-based audits.

Graham, who became Ghana’s first female Auditor-General in July, gave the warning at the launch of the 2026 financial year audit in Accra on 29 September. Her office is due this month to put an Audit Recommendations Tracker on its website, letting Parliament and the public see whether institutions act on audit findings. About GH¢280.5 million in surcharges imposed on officials remained unpaid as of February 2026.

In an interview on the sidelines of the launch, Graham said institutional leaders should meet audit teams at the start of each engagement, make time to hear emerging findings and respond with evidence. Early engagement, she said, would help the service finish on schedule, publish reports on time and reflect institutions’ responses properly. “There is going to be more vigilance,” she said.

The service will rely more on technology. Where data allows, auditors will examine entire populations of transactions rather than limited samples, and they will run interim audits at selected institutions to catch problems before they build up into prior-year adjustments. The 2026 cycle rests on five pillars: continuous engagement, timeliness, technology, people and impact.

Graham said tougher auditing alone would not end irregularities, because institutions are run by people and leave room for both honest mistakes and deliberate alteration of figures. She urged her own auditors to stay independent and not let their professional judgment be compromised, and said those responsible for irregularities also needed a change of mindset before infractions would fall significantly.

She has pledged to use her constitutional powers to disallow unlawful spending and surcharge the officials responsible. Since 2022, about GH¢57.2 million has been collected through the Auditor-General’s recovery account. The service says its work has recovered GH¢17.6 billion and prevented about GH¢11.7 billion in wrongful payments.

Graham also defended the service against criticism of its numbers. Under the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584), the service is itself a public institution open to scrutiny, she said, but differences between figures from different bodies are not automatically errors. Results can vary with the terms of an engagement, the audit period and the accounting basis. Under International Public Sector Accounting Standards, she said, cash-basis and accrual-basis accounting can produce different numbers from the same transactions. She urged the media to report findings accurately.

Professor Francis Dodoo, the Presidential Advisor on the National Anti-Corruption Programme, who chaired the launch, repeated his estimate that Ghana lost GH¢100 billion to financial irregularities over six years and asked the service for comparable figures for 2025. He also urged it to set surcharge rates above the returns misappropriated money could earn in the market.

The Constitution requires the Auditor-General to report to Parliament within six months of the end of each financial year. The service audits more than 7,000 institutions a year and sent 21 reports to Parliament last year.

Ghana’s Tier 1 trafficking status faces its first test in 2027

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Ghana’s Tier 1 trafficking status faces its first test in 2027

Ghana’s new Tier 1 ranking in the US Trafficking in Persons Report runs for one year. Keeping it will depend on a national anti-trafficking plan that expires in December and on money for survivor services that civil society groups say is still too thin.

The State Department lifted Ghana to Tier 1 in its 2026 report, published on 8 October, after the government investigated 222 cases, prosecuted 212 suspects and convicted 28 traffickers in 2025, and identified 2,331 victims, almost three times the 794 found in 2024. Tier 1 means a government fully meets the minimum standards set by US law. It is reassessed every year.

Rankings can fall

The same report shows how quickly the status can slip. Seychelles dropped from Tier 1 to Tier 2 this year. Ghana itself spent years on Tier 2 and on the Tier 2 Watch List before this upgrade.

The 2027 report will assess what Ghana does between April 2026 and March 2027. Figures that look strong now become the baseline the country must match or beat.

A plan running out

Ghana’s Human Trafficking National Plan of Action covers 2022 to 2026. It sets out how agencies share the work of prevention, prosecution and protection under the Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694). No successor plan has yet been published. Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, who chairs the Human Trafficking Management Board, set Tier 1 as the board’s goal when it was reconstituted in July 2025.

Where the gaps are

The State Department identified weaknesses that could pull Ghana back. Officers lack the training and equipment to investigate trafficking tied to cybercrime and online scams. Shelter space for adult victims is short, and some officers have used their own money to support survivors. Ghanaian law still allows employers and agents to charge migrant workers recruitment fees.

International Justice Mission (IJM) Ghana, which works on child trafficking on Lake Volta, welcomed the upgrade on 9 October but called for more investment in survivor services and specialised training to tackle technology-enabled trafficking. It said resources for anti-trafficking work in rural communities remain inadequate and that children are still exploited in fishing, domestic work, street hawking, farming, mining, quarrying and herding.

Anita Budu, Director of IJM’s West Africa Programme, said thousands of children and vulnerable adults remain at risk. IJM urged the government to treat the ranking as a reason to fund frontline agencies properly, not as a sign the fight is won.

What to watch

The State Department expects identification and convictions to hold up and protection to improve. That makes the next national plan, its budget, shelter capacity for adults and a cybercrime investigation unit with proper tools the measures on which Ghana’s 2027 ranking will turn.

Ghana’s transformer targets keep rising as grid faults persist

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Ghana’s transformer targets keep rising as grid faults persist

Energy Minister Dr John Abdulai Jinapor has put 3,000 new transformers at the top of his 2027 priorities, the latest in a series of rising targets that began at 1,500 in March. The bigger risk to Ghana’s power supply this year, though, has come from further up the system.

Jinapor set out the goals after a review of the 2026 performance of agencies under the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, directing them to improve efficiency and accountability and deliver measurable results. His priorities include more transformers, a more reliable supply and keeping domestic oil refining going.

For households and businesses, the measure is simple: fewer outages, steadier voltage and lower costs. On that test, 2026 has been mixed.

A moving target

The transformer programme has grown with each announcement. At the launch of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) corporate strategy in March, Jinapor said about 1,500 new units would be in place by the end of that month. By late April the plan had become 2,500, with about 200 installed that month and another 140 on the way. He has also described a rollout of about 2,000 distribution transformers. The 2027 figure is 3,000.

The reason is not in dispute. In April, Jinapor said demand had almost doubled in recent years and that many transformers were obsolete and overloaded after years of underinvestment, causing overloads, low voltage and erratic supply. Some units being replaced in Accra had been in service for 22 years. ECG has been fitting larger units, moving from 20 kVA to 30 kVA and above, and upgrading primary substations at Adenta, La, Teshie-Nungua, Nmai Dzorn, Baatsona and Lashibi.

What has been harder to track is delivery. The ministry promised a nationwide replacement timetable in May. Progress figures have come in fragments, and there is no public count of how many of the promised units are now in service or where.

The faults upstream

New transformers address local problems: the street that browns out every evening, the shop whose fridge fails on low voltage. They do not prevent the kind of failure that hit the whole country twice this year.

On 29 July, a disturbance on the national transmission system tripped several power plants at once and cut supply to Accra, Kumasi and much of the north. On 20 August, a fault on the Akosombo-Volta transmission line knocked out the Akosombo units and some thermal plants. Both outages began on the network run by the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), not on ECG’s distribution lines. The Institute for Energy Security has demanded publication of the technical report into the July blackout, which had not been released by the time of the second.

A credible 2027 plan therefore needs a transmission line item and a public account of what went wrong in July and August, alongside the transformer count.

The money question

Reliability also depends on whether the sector can pay its way. ECG’s losses through technical faults, theft and weak collection leave it short of cash to pay generators and fuel suppliers, and the Treasury fills the gap. Jinapor has acknowledged that Ghana’s programme with the International Monetary Fund requires quarterly tariff adjustments to reflect the cost of power, and has told ECG it may disconnect government agencies that do not pay their bills.

His call for accountability will be judged on whether those losses fall, not on how many units are installed.

Refining: restarted, not yet proven

The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) resumed crude processing on 19 December 2025 after more than six years of inactivity and a three-month overhaul of its crude distillation unit. President John Dramani Mahama commissioned the refurbished unit on 1 August 2026, as the refinery received Ghana’s own Jubilee crude for local processing. TOR also took in a million-barrel cargo of Nigerian Bonga crude through its tolling partner.

The refinery runs at about 28,000 barrels per stream day and aims to reach its nameplate 45,000 once a new furnace is integrated. The test for 2027 is whether it can secure crude and working capital steadily enough to avoid the stop-start record that kept it idle from 2018.

Ghana’s film industry struggles to turn movies into money

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Ghana’s film industry struggles to turn movies into money

Ghanaian filmmakers can make films. Getting paying audiences to watch them is the harder part, and without that, investors will not come.

That was the message from producers and regulators at the launch of the second Peruvian Film Festival at the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC) in Accra on 8 October 2026. It lands five months after the government launched a GH¢20 million Film Development Fund to revive the industry, of which only a quarter had been released by May.

The festival, organised by the Embassy of Peru with the National Film Authority (NFA) and UniMAC, was billed as a cultural exchange. The panel discussion turned instead to money: who distributes Ghanaian films, who watches them, and how anyone can tell.

A market without numbers

Producer, screenwriter and film educator Yaw Firempong Boakye said the industry’s shortage of reliable data was holding back private investment. Investors want to know how many people watch a film, where and what it earns. Without consistent records of cinema attendance, streaming figures and box office revenue, a producer pitching a project has little to show beyond enthusiasm.

That gap affects more than producers. Every film that fails to recover its costs means less work for the actors, writers, editors and camera crews who depend on the next one getting made.

Filmmaker and creative director Epiphania Sarah Ama Ablorde said she thinks about the market from the start. “I’m very particular how marketable the film is,” she said.

Too few screens

Kafui Danku-Pitcher, who heads the NFA, acknowledged problems with distribution, production quality and access to audiences, and called for a more coordinated system to move Ghanaian films into cinemas and onto digital platforms. Promoting the distribution and exhibition of local films is part of the authority’s legal mandate.

Cinemas remain scarce outside the big cities. James Gardiner, the NFA’s deputy head, outlined plans to bring screenings closer to communities, though such schemes need steady operating funds and a reliable supply of films people want to see.

Streaming offers another route, but uploading a film does not guarantee an income. Producers still need distribution deals, marketing and clear reporting of viewing and earnings to know whether an online release pays.

The fund’s first test

Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson announced the GH¢20 million Film Development Fund in the 2026 Budget, presented on 13 November 2025, as seed money to revive an industry including Kumasi’s Kumawood productions. A separate GH¢20 million went to a Creative Arts Fund.

The NFA launched the film fund on 20 May 2026 at Silverbird Cinemas in Accra and inaugurated a committee to manage it. At the time, the authority said the government had released GH¢5 million. The fund is meant to support research, training, infrastructure and eligible projects, and licensed filmmakers and companies are expected to pay a levy into it.

NFA Board Chair Ivan Quashigah warned at the launch that the fund was not a bonanza and said the industry’s future lies in audience development and market expansion. Producer Kofi Asamoah urged that the money go into production rather than workshops.

The panel in Accra suggested the two aims are linked. Films financed by the fund will face the same question as every other Ghanaian production: whether anyone can show they made money.

Looking abroad

Jonathan Quevedo, Peru’s Deputy Ambassador to Ghana, said conversations at festivals can lead to co-productions, academic exchanges and lasting partnerships between film communities. Peruvian director and lecturer Rossana Díaz Costa, who joined from Madrid, offered a more sober note. “You need a lot of patience if you want to be a filmmaker,” she said.

Matilda Ntiriwaa Kyei, the embassy’s cultural promotion officer, moderated the discussion. The festival runs at UniMAC’s South Legon campus.

Banks could sue Controller over unpaid loan deductions, Atuahene says

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Banks could sue Controller over unpaid loan deductions, Atuahene says

Banks could sue the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) over loan repayments deducted from public workers’ salaries but not passed on, banking consultant Dr Richmond Atuahene has said.

His comments raise the stakes in a dispute that could cut off credit to hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses, doctors and other government employees. The Ghana Association of Banks (GAB) has warned that its members may stop new lending to workers paid through the CAGD payroll within weeks unless the backlog is cleared.

GAB Chief Executive John Awuah said deductions for loan repayments had already been taken from workers’ pay but not remitted to lenders, and that the arrears stretched back three months as of October. Banks, he said, were being forced to book impairments on debts that should have been settled.

The pressure comes as the Bank of Ghana pushes lenders to bring their non-performing loan ratio down to 10 per cent. Unremitted deductions show up on banks’ books as unpaid loans, even though borrowers have had the money taken from their salaries.

Atuahene said the CAGD’s role is to deduct repayments and pay them over to lenders, and that holding on to money already taken from workers raises questions of contract and accountability. He questioned how deductions could be made without the funds reaching the banks and asked whether the delays were deliberate. Banks could consider legal action against the CAGD and possibly the Finance Minister, he said.

Whether such a claim would succeed would turn on the agreements governing payroll deductions, the CAGD’s statutory duties and evidence of what was deducted and what remains unpaid. Naming a minister or official as a defendant would not on its own establish personal liability.

Atuahene said the delays had already cost lenders. He cited an unnamed savings and loans company that he said wrote off about GH¢6 million in 2024 because expected repayments never arrived. The money at risk ultimately belongs to depositors, he said, and bad loans rise when it is withheld. “If you don’t pay, what is it? The non-performing goes up,” he said.

He urged President John Dramani Mahama’s government to step in, warning that the delays threaten lenders’ balance sheets and could restrict credit to public sector workers who rely on salary-backed loans.

Payroll remittance delays are not new. Graphic Business reported in 2014 that the CAGD owed public workers about GH¢300 million in pension contributions it had deducted but not paid over, a gap a senior official at the time blamed on government liquidity problems.

The CAGD has not publicly responded to the banks’ complaint. GAB has not said when it will decide on suspending lending.

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