About the Speaker – Prof. Joseph Roland Atsu Ayee
Prof. Joseph Roland Atsu Ayee, a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science, University of Ghana, Legon has noted that one of the deficits of the practice of the regulatory state in Ghana is that there is a creeping ‘regulator uncertainty’ that occurs in the aftermath of political change or transition, which together with other deficits such as political interference, undermine regulatory consistency and alter the regulatory rules of the game for short-term political advantage.
Prof. Ayee was speaking at the 2021 Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture hosted by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on 26 November 2021 as part of its Founder’s Week Lectures.
Speaking on the topic: Reflections on the Ghanaian Regulatory State, Prof. Ayee identified other deficits of the Ghanaian regulatory state. They include proliferation of regulatory bodies leading to complexity and diversity, fragmentation, weak coordination, oversight and compliance, underlap and overlap of mandates, weak transparency and accountability, capacity loss, inefficient service delivery and inadequate consumer satisfaction and less attention paid to their complaints.
On the positive side, he noted that some of the gains Ghana had made to build a resilient regulatory state included the reform of state enterprises, corporatization, creation of executive bodies, regionalization and decentralization, the setting up of statutory bodies, and the increasing use of formal rules as instruments of guidance through the work of the parliament and judiciary.
He recommended a number of drivers of change including continued regulatory reform for better governance; the development of a monitoring and coordination culture; the development of the adaptive capacity of regulatory bodies (response, anticipation, monitoring, and learning capacities); the adoption of a holistic approach to capacity maintenance of organizations; and the identification of pockets of effectiveness for others to learn from them (Read the full presentation here).
Every year, since November 1960 the Academy celebrates its Anniversary. The Founder’s Week starts with the Presidential Address delivered by the President of the Academy; followed by a three-day (now two-day) symposium on a selected subject quite often, of topical or national interest. The last day is dedicated to what used to be called the Anniversary Lecture, now renamed the ‘Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture’ in memory of the Founder.
In 2003 a foundation member of the Academy, Professor Alexander Kwapong, who was then Chairman of the Council of State, delivered the maiden Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture on “The Academy’s Foundations, and its Role in National Development”. Another foundation member, Emeritus Prof. J. H. Kwabena Nketia gave the 2004 Kwame Nkrumah Memorial lecture on ‘Kwame Nkrumah and the Arts’. In 2005, Dr. Letitia E. Obeng, a Past President of the Academy gave the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture on the topic, ‘Kwame Nkrumah and the Sciences’.
