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

After returning from work the following evening, Afrakoma and Beesiwa were having supper when there was a knock on the door. She went to open it, and Beesiwa’s parents entered.

They moved awkwardly to the dining table and after a moment’s of hesitation, they both knelt down.  ‘Beesiwa and Afrakoma, we have come to beg you. We are not asking for forgiveness.

 Beesiwa, we are begging you to find it in your heart to come home, because it will look very disgraceful that our only daughter is living with her friend when her parents are only a few metres away. We beg you in the name of God. Please come home. We will not interfere in any part of your life, going forward. We beg you, Beesiwa’.                                                                                                                     ‘Daddy and Mummy’, Afrakoma said, ‘you are here begging her to come back home, to avoid disgrace. But do you realize what Sammy has done to her, thanks to your lust for money? Beesiwa was keeping her innocence for the man God has prepared for her.

She made it clear that she was not happy with this man. And he clearly showed his character when he came to your house on both times drunk. You pressurized her to go with him, because you had been taken monies from him. What did you need the money for?

Please allow her to put herself together. Give her some days, then she will take a decision’. The two parents got up and walked away.                                                ‘Many thanks, Afrakoma’, Beesiwa said after they left. ‘You echoed my very thoughts. I don’t know how I can go and live with them again, even though they are my parents.

And Afrakoma, it will take me a very long time before I consider the idea of a relationship with a guy, let along marriage’.                                                                                                                                               ‘I understand you, Beesiwa. But just relax for now. Leave it to God. He will wipe away your tears, and give you a fresh start. Your experience has been horrible, but you will overcome’.

After several discussions which involved elders of the Presbyterian Church and Afrakoma’s parents, it was agreed that Beesiwa would spend her time with Afrakoma and her parents.

Beesiwa took a six month leave without pay from work, and opened a shop selling items for catering events: take-away containers and cutlery, disposable napkins and several other things.

She only made a modest profit, but it offered her a peaceful means of overcoming the trauma she had experienced at the hands of Sammy. She went to church on Sundays, but she avoided any interaction with young ladies and young men.

She firmly rejected any advances from men in the neighbourhood. So when they returned from church one Sunday, three years after the unfortunate event with Sammy Abrokwa, Afrakoma decided to act.

After they had enjoyed Beesiwa’s favourite Fante kenkey and garden egg stew, Afrakoma gently introduced the subject. ‘Beesiwa, you and I are more than sisters. It’s been three years since the unfortunate incident with Sam Abrokwa.

I have been praying, and I think it is time for you to put those unfortunate incident before you, and move forward. You are certainly a very beautiful girl, with a beautiful character.

Many decent young guys would be happy to have you for a partner, and I think you should give someone a chance. You need to get a decent job, and I believe in the process, you will meet a decent young man to marry. ’.                                                                                 ‘Afrakoma, I certainly appreciate what you and your husband Mark have done for me. I agree that it is time I opened up.

I will start exploring job opportunities, and open up to people who show up with enough indication that they are genuine. I am not particularly concerned with wealth, but I would like to meet a genuine person who is husband material. A few guys have approached me, but I am taking my time’.                                                                                  

‘I’m very glad to hear this. But Beesiwa, your own uncle Wofa Kwame came to discuss something with me. He works with a young engineer who is in estate development.

He is quite wealthy and hardworking, but according to Wofa Kwame, he is a very humble person, extremely funny, and he is suggesting that you meet him. He is called Kakraba Forson, and interestingly Wofa Yaw heard him mention that he would like to employ a personal assistant. He runs a small but successful property and Project Company’                                                                            

‘Well, Afrakoma, I don’t have any problem meeting him. I respect Wofa Yaw, so I know he means well for me. So how do I meet him?’                                                                                       ‘Let’s speak to Wofa Kwame. I’m sure he will arrange a meeting.