From policy to practice: Making productivity a national movement in Ghana- Part 2

Pillars for making productivity a national movement

3. Strengthen and resource productivity institutions

MDPI was established precisely to champion productivity improvement in Ghana’s public and private sectors. Yet like many institutions of its kind across Africa, it has often operated with budgets and staffing levels inconsistent with its strategic mandate. This must change. Institutions like MDPI should be treated as strategic national assets equipped with modern training infrastructure, incentivised to deploy consultants into enterprises and public institutions, and empowered to set national standards for workforce productivity. Regional- and district-level productivity extension services, analogous to agricultural extension officers, could provide practical, hands-on support to SMEs and local governments across the country.

4. Incentivise productivity in the public sector

The public sector remains the single largest employer in Ghana and sets the tone for national work culture. If productivity is rewarded and celebrated in government, it will radiate outward. Ghana should revisit its performance management frameworks for the civil and public service, moving away from input-based assessments (attendance, processes followed) toward outcome-based evaluations (results delivered, service quality achieved). Linking promotions, bonuses, and recognitions explicitly to productivity outcomes will signal, powerfully, that the state is serious. Ghana’s productivity movement must not be left to the private sector alone.

5. Harness technology as a productivity multiplier

Digital technology is the great productivity equaliser of our age. Mobile money has already transformed financial productivity for millions of Ghanaians. The question is how to extend this digital dividend to agriculture, healthcare, education, logistics, and governance. Ghana’s digital transformation agenda, including Ghana Post GPS, the digitisation of government services, and the rollout of broadband infrastructure must be purposefully linked to productivity outcomes. Beyond infrastructure, Ghanaian enterprises need support to adopt enterprise resource planning systems, data analytics tools, and digital supply chain solutions that allow them to do more with less.

The role of leadership: Modelling the movement

National movements do not sustain themselves on policies and pillars alone. They need visible, credible leaders who embody their values in practice. Ghana’s productivity movement needs champions in the Presidency, in the boardrooms of our largest companies, in the media, in our universities, in our traditional leadership structures etc, who will speak about productivity not as a development cliché but as a personal and collective commitment.

Consider how Singapore’s transformation was driven as much by Lee Kuan Yew’s relentless personal discipline and public messaging around hard work, meritocracy, and efficiency as it was by any specific policy. Or how Rwanda’s monthly Umuganda community work days, where citizens, including the President, collectively clean, build, and improve their environment, have created a visible, embodied culture of collective industry. Ghana has its own rich tradition of communal labour and shared responsibility. We need to revive and modernise these values as the cultural architecture of our productivity movement.

SMEs: The engine room of Ghana’s productivity future

Small and medium enterprises account for the overwhelming majority of employment and output in Ghana’s economy. Any serious national productivity movement must place SMEs at its centre. Currently, most Ghanaian SMEs operate with limited access to management training, modern business tools, or productivity consulting support. The result is a large swathe of the economy running at a fraction of its potential efficiency.

A national productivity movement for SMEs would involve: accessible, subsidised business management training at district level; productivity clinics staffed by MDPI consultants and retired business executives; peer-learning networks where successful SME owners share improvement strategies; and financial incentives such as tax relief or grants for enterprises that can demonstrate measurable productivity improvements. Digital platforms can democratise access to these resources far beyond what physical infrastructure alone could achieve.

Conclusion: The movement starts now

Making productivity a national movement in Ghana is not a matter of waiting for the perfect policy, the right government, or a more favourable economic environment. It begins now — with each institution deciding to be more effective, each leader choosing to model the values they preach, each worker holding themselves to a higher standard of output and quality.

Ghana’s history shows that when our people mobilise around a shared goal, be it independence, democratic consolidation, or national disaster response, we are capable of extraordinary collective achievement. Productivity is the next frontier of that mobilisation. It is quieter than political revolution, less dramatic than peacekeeping, but ultimately more transformative than either.

The policy frameworks exist. The institutions are in place. The international partnerships through initiatives like the Africa Kaizen Initiative are ready to support us. What remains is the will to move from paper to practice, from aspiration to action, and from isolated efforts to a movement that every Ghanaian feels part of.

The time for Ghana’s productivity movement is not tomorrow. It is now.

By Ethel Ansah-Antwi

Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), Ghana