After Ghana’s national airline, Ghana Airways, collapsed and ceased operations between 2004/2005, successive governments have attempted to establish a new national carrier but have been unsuccessful.
Current President, John Dramani Mahama, has similar ambitions. In May this year, 10 10-member task force was established to work on the ambition. From indications, it could be expected that a brand-new carrier built from scratch, owned, controlled, and managed by the state, is the goal.
Amid this goal, there is a developing proposition. CDD-Ghana Fellow, Dr. Hene Aku Kwapong, believes the country is ignoring the most practical and proven solution right before its eyes. His argument is that, why reinvent an airline when a Ghanaian operates one that can be scaled?
The Unsuccessful Attempts
His argument stems from the unsuccessful attempts by various governments to establish national carriers. The pattern, he argues, is predictable: thick layers of bureaucracy, political appointments with no commercial logic, and a mindset that treats a national airline as a government department rather than a business that must compete and survive.
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The CDD-Ghana Fellow says even countries with far stronger state institutions have accepted that aviation requires private-sector discipline, performance contracts, and targeted state support, not full state ownership.
But he cannot fathom why Ghana still towing the directing where even powerful countries are abandoning.
“For decades, Ghanaian governments have launched and relaunched national airlines, and each time they have collapsed under the weight of bureaucratic control, political appointments, and the unreality of state-led commercial management. The failure is not mysterious. Even China, with its far stronger institutions, does not operate commercial ventures as wholly state-owned entities. They empower private operators, demand performance, and use state holdings strategically,” he indicated.
The Case of African World Airlines
At the centre of Dr. Kwapong’s argument is Africa World Airlines (AWA), founded by Ghanaian entrepreneur James Akpo, popularly known as Togbe Afede. He narrates that in a sector where even global brands struggle, AWA has quietly achieved what the state has failed to do in building a safe, reliable, commercially viable airline that has flown more than five million passengers.
It has secured international partnerships, invested in systems that meet global standards, and kept operations stable in one of Africa’s most challenging aviation markets.
For him, in any country serious about development, this is where the national strategy would begin. He believes it will be prudent, economically wise, and easier for the country to partner with the domestic business that has already cracked the code.
He believes the government can build a transparent performance-based partnership, where the state supports it to scale. In other words, the government should use what already exists and strengthen it.
Sadly, he observes that it appears Ghana is hesitating on this approach. Dr. Kwapong describes the problem as a deep psychological barrier, which is a national instinct to distrust local success.
Many Ghanaians, he says, hold an unconscious belief that if a local entrepreneur achieves something big, it must be because of political influence. This suspicion, rooted in years of unresolved history, clouds public judgment and paralyses policymakers.
Instead of asking whether AWA can deliver a strong national carrier, the public debates whether supporting AWA would be “favouring Togbe Afede.”
That, he insists, is how national potential gets wasted. He recounts that the country keeps pouring money into new airline dreams, complete with new branding, new feasibility studies, and new government-controlled management structures, Meanwhile, there is a fully functioning Ghanaian airline already existing and is proving itself daily.
Lessons from South Korea
South Korea once faced a similar dilemma. Its early business leaders were not universally admired. But the state made a bold philosophical decision to choose trust performance over perception.
The country supported competence even when public opinion is divided. That courage, he narrates, produced global giants like Samsung and Hyundai and turned a fledgling domestic airline into Korean Air.
“South Korea once faced a similar dilemma. Its early business leaders were not beloved. But the state made a philosophical decision to trust performance over perception, results over rumor. That courage created Samsung, Hyundai, LG, and Korean Air, founded by an individual far less experienced at business than James Akpo,” he noted.
The Bottomline
For Dr. Kwapong, Ghana’s situation is not about lacking innovators or ambition. What it lacks is the courage to mobilize its own people.
He insists that the Mahama-led administration should stop chasing a fresh national airline fantasy and instead adopt a transparent, measurable, performance-based partnership with Africa World Airlines.
