The equilibrium nobody wants in the civil service: Political survival, professional neutrality, and the coordination problem

The Missing Question

For decades, the corporate mantra has been the importance of human capital, yet a big gap remains between acknowledgment and action.

Ghana loses 315,000 hectares of forest every year. In 2024 alone, that figure was 77,000 hectares, land that, once gone, takes decades and far more capital to recover than it would have cost to protect.

Kojo Sardine, a densely populated community in Labadi, is facing a growing transport challenge as narrow roads designed for a much smaller settlement struggle to accommodate a rising population, increasing vehicle numbers and expanding roadside businesses.

For Ghanaian businesses, the cost of certainty, not the direction of the cedi, is the number worth watching right now, and it has rarely been lower.

Last Friday, during my appearance on JoyFM TV, I reflected on a question that is becoming increasingly urgent for African leaders: we have spent considerable time discussing what artificial intelligence can do, but are our organisations actually ready to use it well? This matters because the global AI conversation is changing. The issue is no longer simply adoption. It is value.

Government’s decision to substantially increase the levy on fuel oil has reignited the debate over the appropriate balance between revenue mobilisation and fair taxation. While every government has a responsibility to safeguard public revenue and prevent tax evasion, the measures adopted to achieve that objective must be proportionate, targeted, and economically sound.

In Ghana’s democracy today, a single social media post can lead to police custody. Recent arrests over alleged threats and calls for violence have renewed a national debate about where free speech ends and responsibility begins.