At a high-level breakfast meeting convened by Graphic Business and Stanbic Bank Ghana today, leading economists and business executives sounded the alarm on long-standing policy discontinuity in Ghana.
Their warning: when government priorities reset every election cycle, the country’s economic development stalls, and the cost to taxpayers is enormous.
Professor Peter Quartey, of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, emphasized this risk succinctly: “Ghana has long been bedeviled by policy discontinuity, fiscal volatility, macroeconomic instability, and investor uncertainty, especially during political transitions.” His remarks underscored the systemic challenge that many see as a major barrier to sustainable growth.
Stanbic’s Managing Director, Kwamina Asomaning, picked up on that thread during his address, asking a pointed question: “Can a nation truly prosper if its development agenda resets every election cycle?” He argued that inconsistent commitment from one administration to the next weakens both public trust and investor confidence.
One tangible consequence of this political stop-start is the proliferation of publicly funded projects that are never completed or never put to use. According to a recent Auditor‑General’s report, Ghana has 62 fully completed infrastructure projects, including schools, health centers, market sheds, and police stations, that remain unused. The cost to the state for these idle facilities is about GHC 52.9 million.
In other examples, the 2020 audit of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) found that abandoned and delayed local projects cost Ghana GHC 35.4 million, a striking illustration of how funds are often committed without ever producing lasting value. These kinds of derailed investments directly undercut Ghana’s long-term development ambitions, including its Vision 2057, the government’s strategic blueprint for 34-year transformational growth.
Vision 2057 calls for sustained infrastructure development, resilient and inclusive institutions, and macroeconomic stability, goals that are fundamentally incompatible with a pattern of abandoned local projects.
Moreover, the medium-term development frameworks (2022–2025) that guide local assemblies are explicitly aligned with broader national strategies such as Ghana@100 and the “Ghana Beyond Aid” charter, which emphasize self-reliance, equitable growth, and long-term structural transformation. When local governments abandon projects that would have supported these frameworks, like health clinics, police posts, or basic sanitation, they chip away at the very foundation of Ghana’s future‑oriented vision.
Even beyond district‑level initiatives, larger development goals have fallen victim to political shifts. Research by Martin J. Williams at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government reveals that about one‑third of small public projects started (between 2011–2013) were never completed. According to his analysis, unfinished projects consumed almost 20% of all local‑government capital expenditure, representing huge inefficiencies in public investment.
Beyond these small-scale initiatives, some of Ghana’s most high-profile legacy projects have also stalled. Consider the Saglemi Housing Project, which promised 5,000 affordable units but only saw 668 completed. And then there is the Accra SkyTrain, proposed as a $2.6 billion mass-transit solution, that never moved beyond the planning stage.
Asomaning returned later in his remarks to emphasize the long-term benefit of stability: “When citizens see that national projects survive beyond election cycles, trust in both government and democracy deepens. Investors, too, gain confidence when they know that commitments made today will not be abandoned tomorrow.”
This is more than a rhetorical point. According to research, the economic cost of these abandoned or stalled projects is not just wasted money, but also lost opportunity. When infrastructure projects fail to reach completion or remain unused, the social returns, such as better education, improved health, and increased commerce, never materialize.
There are already calls for reform. At the meeting, experts urged the government to institutionalize multi-year development planning that transcends electoral cycles. They recommended more rigorous monitoring and oversight of public contracts, and stronger incentives to ensure that once a project is begun, it is seen through. The Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government has echoed similar calls, urging assemblies to complete legacy projects before launching new ones.
If Ghana is to overcome the drag of policy discontinuity, many in the business community argue that this kind of structural reform is not optional; it is essential. Without it, each new administration risks repeating a costly cycle: grand promises, partial progress, and wasted public funds.
