Ghana’s Ministry of the Interior has emerged as the country’s best-performing ministry, topping a new assessment of 23 government ministries that asks a simple question: how well do public institutions help the economy grow?
The Index of Government Institutions’ Performance Towards Economic Prosperity (IGIPTEP), developed by the Africa Centre for Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment (ACEYE) in partnership with Atlas Network, placed the Interior Ministry first with 80.26 percent, the only ministry in the index’s very high performance category.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection came second with 72.8 percent as other ministries followed in that order.
The Methodology: How the scores were built
The index measures five areas: service delivery quality, money management, transparency and accountability, people and work efficiency, and public engagement and inclusion. Researchers did not knock on ministry doors.
They worked from secondary sources, including institutional websites, annual reports, archived publications and online media coverage, then organised and coded the information, compared findings across sources and turned the results into scores.
The approach is inspired by the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World index. The assessment relies on available documentary evidence, not a direct measurement of every aspect of service delivery. In simple terms, a ministry earns points for what it can show and publish, not only for what it does.
The High Performers
From the report, The Interior Ministry’s lead is not surprising, since it also took the top spot in the previous edition of the report in 2025. Its score sits about seven and a half points above Gender, Children and Social Protection, and more than 16 points above the sixth-placed ministry.
Last year’s edition, which covered 50 institutions, also ranked Interior first, at 80.8 percent, with strong marks for service delivery, transparency and public engagement. This report also flagged limited transparency in fund allocation and contract management.
The Gender, Children and Social Protection Ministry, whose work centres on vulnerable groups, shows that institutions with a social mandate can score well on governance. Still, the distance between first and second place leaves room to grow, and no other ministry reached the very high category.
The Top 10
Behind the top two, the race is tight. The Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs placed third with 66.02 percent, followed by Education with 65.42 percent, Lands and Natural Resources with 64.82 percent and Health with 64.15 percent. The Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs completed the top 10.
From third to sixth place, fewer than two points separate the ministries, so a small improvement in publishing information could move a ministry several places. In a competition this close, every published report and working website clearly counts. Overall, 21 of the 23 ministries scored above 50 percent, while two fell below it. Most crossed the pass mark, but few came near the leader.
The Next Stage
ACEYE and Atlas Network say the next phase will involve stakeholder dialogues and the co-development of policy recommendations. The earlier edition called for functional websites, mandatory asset declarations for public officials, annual audits and performance-based budgeting. Whether ministries take those ideas up will shape how the index is judged next time.
For ministries now studying their scorecards, the real test is whether a good score on paper becomes a better experience for Ghanaians and also economic freedom and prosperity.
