By Nwokolo MARIE-NOELLE
At the recent ministerial vetting, Ghana’s then-nominee and recently confirmed candidate for Foreign Affairs Minister made an uncharacteristically bold declaration: ambassadors must move beyond attending diplomatic receptions and start delivering tangible economic value. In plain terms, they must earn their keep.
This should not just be rhetoric; it is an urgent necessity. Ghana’s Foreign Service seemingly remains tethered to an outdated model of diplomacy: heavy on handshakes but light on economic results.
Meanwhile, nations that take their global engagement seriously have long turned their embassies into frontline investment offices. Few countries exemplify this better than, yes, you guessed it, Singapore.
Inspiration, not a blueprint: Singapore’s playbook
Singapore’s investment promotion machinery did not just start today. In the book From Third World to First, Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s first prime minister, makes one thing clear: a small country with no natural resources cannot afford diplomats who think their job is simply to ‘represent’ their nation.
He rejected the idea of ambassadors as mere political figureheads and instead positioned them as frontline salespeople for the country. Essentially, Singapore’s ambassadors were given a singular mission—bring back investment, or do not come back at all.
Consider the case of Singaporean diplomats in New York. Instead of trading niceties in diplomatic circles, they aggressively courted Fortune 500 CEOs, convincing them that Singapore was the best place to do business in Asia. They did not just attend conferences; they pitched Singapore like investment bankers sell stocks.
And the results spoke for themselves – firms like Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, and General Electric set up shop, helping Singapore transform from a swampy island into an economic powerhouse.
Ghana, like many African nations, has traditionally treated diplomacy as an exercise in statecraft, emphasizing bilateral relations, protocol, and political alliances. While these functions remain essential, they alone do not generate jobs or revenue.
The minister’s call to introduce key performance indicators (KPIs) for ambassadors reflects a long-overdue shift toward a results-driven foreign policy, one that should prioritize trade, investment, and job creation.
To put this into context, consider Ghana’s diplomatic missions in major economic hubs such as Washington, London, and Beijing. How many of these embassies can confidently say they have helped facilitate direct investment deals in the past year? How many ambassadors are cultivating relationships with CEOs, investment funds, and trade associations with the explicit goal of securing economic opportunities for Ghana? If the answer is unclear, then Ghana’s foreign service is not yet aligned with the country’s pressing economic needs.
But can Ghana copy and paste Singapore’s diplomatic model? Unlikely. Singapore’s transformation was built on an elite, highly skilled bureaucracy, strong political discipline, and a hyper-competitive investment climate. Ghana, by contrast, grapples with political patronage in diplomatic appointments, inconsistent policies, and a bureaucracy that often lacks autonomy.
This does not mean Ghana cannot reform its embassies. It simply means the approach must be adaptive, context-driven, and iterative – not just a grand proclamation that fails in implementation.
From rhetoric to reform: An adaptive approach to economic diplomacy
To transform Ghana’s embassies into economic engines, reforms must be tested, refined, and scaled rather than imposed as rigid mandates. This means:
Pilot Investment-Focused Embassies
Instead of attempting a sweeping transformation, Ghana could select three to five embassies in high-potential investment hubs – London, Dubai, and Beijing, New York – and empower them with:
-
- Dedicated investment attachés with private-sector experience.
- Direct collaboration with Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and key ministries.
- A modest “deal facilitation fund” to help close investment negotiations. A Ghanaian ambassador in Silicon Valley should not just be networking at tech summits; they should have the resources to provide visiting Ghanaian startups with market intelligence, introductions, and even financial incentives to secure high-impact partnerships. If diplomats are to act as business development executives, they should have a budget to negotiate deals.
- Embassy Startup Incubators: Certain embassies—especially in tech hubs like Berlin, San Francisco, or Shenzhen—could also provide co-working spaces for Ghanaian startups, helping them navigate foreign markets.
The successes and failures of these pilots should shape broader Foreign Service reforms. In little time, a Ghanaian diplomat in Germany, for instance, should be able to demonstrate how they have helped Ghanaian firms penetrate the European market (or vice versa) under the Economic Partnership Agreement.
Make diplomacy more data-driven
Ambassadors should not be measured by attendance at summits but by their tangible impact on Ghana’s economy. However, rather than imposing arbitrary KPIs, Ghana would best be served by developing flexible, measurable targets that evolve based on feedback.
-
- How many Ghanaian businesses secured new export markets through embassy support?
- What new FDI projects did diplomatic missions directly facilitate?
- What market intelligence did embassies provide to shape Ghana’s economic policy?
These targets should be reviewed periodically and adjusted based on real-world constraints and occurrences.
Embed learning and feedback loops
Reforming Ghana’s economic diplomacy will require constant iteration rather than one-time directives. Ambassadors and attachés must have a platform where they share what works, what does not, and how strategies should be adjusted.
-
- Frequent embassy review sessions to discuss challenges and best practices.
- Experimentation with different investment attraction techniques – from digital outreach to targeted roadshows. With a little bit of creativity and leveraging tech, options like “virtual embassies”, which enable foreign investors to explore Ghanaian opportunities without requiring extensive physical visits, could be explored.
- Annual recalibration of diplomatic priorities based on Ghana’s evolving economic landscape and national priorities.
Tackle domestic constraints simultaneously
Ghanaian diplomats cannot sell what does not exist. If Ghana’s regulatory frameworks remain rigid, land acquisition remains a nightmare, and industrial power remains expensive, embassies will struggle to attract investment – no matter how well trained or motivated. Any economic diplomacy reform must be matched by:
- Macroeconomic stability improvements: Continued efforts to get our debt distress, exchange rate and inflationary pressures under control would show we really do mean business, as will our efforts around domestic resource mobilization.
- Investment climate improvements: Fast-tracking business registration, land reforms, and tax incentives for priority industries.
- Coordinated domestic strategy: the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), the Ministry of Finance, and embassies must align on sectoral priorities and target investors instead of working in silos.
Beyond the traditional embassy: Rethinking the model
It is true that diplomacy is not just about trade and investment. Security, multilateral cooperation, and cultural diplomacy all matter. It is, however, also true that one of Ghana’s most significant failures in foreign policy is economic – our exports remain low-value, our FDI lags behind peer countries, and our embassies are often bystanders rather than catalysts in global markets.
Other nations have done this with striking success—China’s Belt and Road Initiative is driven as much by its diplomats as by its state-owned enterprises. Rwanda’s embassies are effectively investment promotion agencies, helping the country punch far above its economic weight.
Indeed, Ghana does not have the luxury of viewing diplomacy as an end in itself. It must be a tool for economic expansion and if diplomacy is to serve development, we must embed economic goals into the DNA of our foreign service. A stable democracy in an increasingly volatile region, Ghana should be an easy sell for investors. But no one will make that case for us. We either train our diplomats to be economic warriors or resign ourselves to watching opportunities pass us by.
The Foreign Minister’s call for performance metrics is a step in the right direction. But it will mean nothing if not backed by firm execution. Ghana needs ambassadors who bring home deals, not just dinner invitations.
Marie-Noelle Nwokolo is an associate of the Brenthurst Foundation.
