The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, has called on stakeholders to focus on implementing existing policies and commitments to build a productive human capital ecosystem in Ghana.
She said the country already had policies, institutions and legislative frameworks to support human capital development, stressing that the priority should be to translate these commitments into practical outcomes rather than continually developing new policy documents.
Dr Amoah made the remarks at the sixth annual Precision Policy Conference on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, under the theme “Human Capital at Work.”
“Please, let us work with what we have and translate these existing commitments into tangible change,” she said.
She explained that human capital development required coordinated action across health, early childhood development, education, skills training, employment and enterprise development to ensure that people acquired relevant skills and applied them productively.
The NDPC Director-General also emphasised the need for adequate financing, monitoring, evaluation and learning to ensure that policies translated into measurable improvements in people’s lives.
“Let us move from policy to plans, from plans to budgets, and from commitments to implementation,” she said.
Dr Amoah expressed hope that the conference would generate practical recommendations to strengthen the proposed Human Capital Development Strategy and connect the various policy areas into a coherent and productive ecosystem.
The Founder and President of the Design and Technology Institute (DTI), Constance Swaniker, said Ghana’s ambition to become a high-income nation by 2057 would depend on the productivity and capabilities of its people.
She cited the World Bank’s Human Capital Index, noting that a child born in Ghana today was expected to attain about 45 per cent of the productivity potential associated with full health and quality education.
Ms Swaniker urged stakeholders to view human capital as a productive asset, arguing that development efforts must consider not only educational qualifications but also people’s ability to contribute meaningfully to the economy.
“Human capital is built by all of us, or it is not built at all,” she said, highlighting the shared responsibility of government, industry, academia, development partners and young people.