Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, has described President John Dramani Mahama’s ministerial reshuffle as a “master stroke decision” in a statement issued in Accra on Friday, August 7, 2026, hours after the Presidency announced two nominations and two reassignments.
The policy analyst anchored his endorsement in what he characterised as a procurement failure at the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, and used the statement to serve notice that IMANI will scrutinise military purchases under the incoming Defence Minister as the government moves to retool the armed forces.
His intervention arrives while the nominations still await parliamentary vetting, placing an early marker on a reshuffle the Presidency has framed in administrative terms.
Mahama Ayariga’s Move Called a Master Stroke
Mr Cudjoe reserved his strongest approval for the nomination of Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga to replace Ahmed Ibrahim at Local Government, singling out the swap as the sharpest element of the changes. He argued that the outgoing minister had been swamped by the government’s flagship market programme.
“Ahmed was overwhelmed by the 24-hour Markets project. He needed to formalise the procurement processes, but voracious party people and some traditional rulers made him give up the ghost.”
Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education
The allegation lands on a programme of considerable scale. Ahmed Ibrahim told Parliament’s Government Assurances Committee in July that the government intends to build a market in each of Ghana’s 261 districts, with contractors instructed to compress a 36-month contract window into 18 to 24 months so the President can commission the facilities before the end of the current term.
The minister had also directed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to acquire land at strategic sites and to work with traditional authorities on siting, and he warned contractors at sod-cutting ceremonies in Bimbilla and elsewhere that shoddy work and delayed mobilisation would trigger re-award of contracts.
Mr Cudjoe expects the Banda MP to fare better at his new posting. “Ahmed can succeed at the Works and Housing,” he said.
Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings Gets IMANI’s Backing
The think-tank welcomed the nomination of Klottey Korle MP Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings to Environment, Science and Technology, framing it as overdue recognition for a legislator who has spent nearly a decade in Parliament without a government appointment.
Mr Cudjoe said the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education would support her in the role, a notably warmer posture than think-tank typically extends to fresh appointees.
A Warning Shot at Defence Procurement
Mr Cudjoe’s assessment of Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, who moves from Works, Housing and Water Resources to Defence, carried both credit and caution.
He acknowledged the minister’s record while questioning his disposition, saying the incoming Defence Minister “looks like one who will be too willing to make deals” and describing him as “a very practical person” who “has left some memories at the Works and Housing ministry.”
That credit came with a qualification. Mr Cudjoe noted that Ghana remains, in his words, light years away from fixing affordable housing at large scale, a judgement that sits against the ministry’s own account of coastal protection works, the Saglemi revival and the Kpone and Oxygen City housing schemes.
The substance of the warning concerns what comes next at Burma Camp. “Well, he has a more challenging ministry now. Now he must man up,” Mr Cudjoe said, tying the demand to the government’s stated plans to retool the security services through the purchase of aircraft and munitions.
He stated plainly that IMANI will be thoroughly examining the procurement process. Mr Cudjoe grounded that commitment in a personal obligation to the late Defence Minister.
He said Dr Edward Omane Boamah, who died in the August 6, 2025 helicopter crash, had been discussing with him how to assemble specialists capable of valuing military equipment, so that Ghana might secure better value for money on defence purchases.
The reference gives the pledge an unusual weight, arriving a day after the country closed a week of commemoration marking one year since the crash.
IMANI Opens Structured Engagement With 23 Ministries
The second half of the statement set out a wider programme. Mr Cudjoe announced that with the administration past the eighteen-month mark, IMANI is initiating a structured series of high-level engagements with Ministers of State and their technical teams, designed as fact-finding and alignment dialogues rather than adversarial reviews.
The framework covers four areas. Ministries will be asked to set out the baseline they inherited on assumption of office, the strategic vision now being implemented together with the metrics tracking it, the systemic, financial, legislative and administrative hurdles they are navigating, and the milestones recorded over the past year and a half.
Mr Cudjoe cast the exercise as a contribution to public understanding rather than a scorecard. “Public policy thrives on public consensus,” he said, adding that the objective is to help tell the stories of 23 ministries better and to contextualise their work within the broader national discourse.
He noted that IMANI has already met the Trade, Industry and Innovation Minister, with the Agriculture Minister next in line.
The initiative follows an announcement Mr Cudjoe made at Parliament’s maiden Information Sharing Session on Economic Governance and Public Financial Management on July 29, 2026, where he said IMANI was shifting from traditional government scorecards toward comprehensive impact assessments measuring whether public spending produces meaningful outcomes.
None of the reshuffled portfolios takes effect until Parliament’s Appointments Committee vets the two nominees and the House votes. Mr Cudjoe indicated he expects further changes, describing the current announcement as a first tranche.
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