A fish pond cannot wait six months for an administrative decision.
Neither can young entrepreneurs whose livelihoods depend on feeding livestock or getting products to market.
Yet this collision between business urgency and bureaucratic routine emerged in research into local government partnerships for youth enterprise development.
The findings challenge Ghana’s decentralisation model: bringing government closer to citizens is insufficient if productive opportunities remain inaccessible.
District Assemblies must help transform local resources, ideas and skills into livelihoods.
This underpins the Institute of Local Government Studies’ (ILGS) Next Generation Local Economic Development approach, or NGLED: moving beyond an “enabling environment” towards active enterprise partnerships for job creation.
5 Assemblies, 1 practical test
Supported by the Knowledge Platform on Inclusive Development Policies (INCLUDE), ILGS implemented three-year action research across five district assemblies: Atiwa East, Awutu Senya East, Komenda–Edina–Eguafo–Abrem, Nsawam–Adoagyiri and Sekondi–Takoradi.
Twenty graduates formed five enterprise groups covering poultry, fish farming and goat rearing.
Each received GH¢60,000–GH¢75,000, alongside training, infrastructure, mentoring and institutional support.
The Assemblies were expected to coordinate assistance, resolve operational problems and support growth.
The research tested whether integrated support could produce viable youth businesses and dependable local government partners.
The results offer cautious encouragement, not uncomplicated success.
During the first 18 months, two assemblies committed financial and technical resources, extended utilities, supervised construction and explored expansion.
Their officials demonstrated intrapreneurship: identifying opportunities, mobilising resources and solving problems within public institutions.
Two others provided limited supervision and no Assembly funding.
Another appeared supportive but passed electricity and security costs to participants.
The distinction was clear: institutional signatures could not substitute for practical assistance.
Behaviour subsequently changed.
Assemblies initially classified as ambivalent or superficially supportive became more facilitative during the final 18 months.
We associated this improvement with peer-review workshops where findings were discussed before senior policy actors.
Some called it “name and shame”.
The lesson, however, is accountability, not humiliation.
Regular reviews, recognition of strong performers and constructive feedback could sustain improvement, with regional coordinating councils providing oversight.
Obstructing rules
Young entrepreneurs reported procurement requirements, internal memoranda and payment procedures that delayed essential purchases.
One enterprise waited approximately six months for action on a funding request.
Some officials used personal funds or vehicles without assured reimbursement.
Reform must preserve public accountability while enabling timely decisions through approved operating budgets, delegated spending limits, payment deadlines and reliable records.
Youth participants reported that assemblies sometimes used contributions of land, utilities or inputs to assert managerial authority.
Officials questioned participants’ competence or commitment, creating mistrust.
Partnership agreements must distinguish ownership, management, oversight and financial obligations.
Public support should not confer unchecked control; entrepreneurs must also protect assets, maintain records and honour agreed funding arrangements.
Reported concerns about political favouritism and expectations of products or profit shares underline the need for transparent selection and ethical boundaries.
These concerns warrant safeguards, not assumptions of universal misconduct.
Reward jobs, not only visible structures
A broader problem is that local government incentives favour infrastructure.
Construction projects are visible.
Enterprise development is slower, less predictable and more dependent on sustained relationships.
The study found that existing performance arrangements did not sufficiently recognise employment outcomes.
If assemblies are to take job creation seriously, national assessment systems and chief executives’ performance contracts should measure enterprise support and sustained employment.
Those expectations must come with resources. Poorer districts should not be penalised for failing to meet employment targets they lack the means to finance.
Coordination also needs strengthening.
Business Advisory Centres, Assembly plans and local economic development structures should operate as parts of one system rather than disconnected interventions.
Build institutions
The study’s small-scale limits what it can establish.
Nevertheless, the experiment shows that assemblies can become more active partners—and that their behaviour can improve under structured review.
Expansion should therefore be phased, supported by clearer responsibilities, continuous practical training, functioning coordination structures and realistic enterprise timelines.
Ghana’s local governments do not need to choose between building infrastructure and building businesses.
It needs District Assemblies that understand how the two connect.
A road becomes more economically valuable when local producers can use it to reach customers; a market becomes more useful when competitive local enterprises have goods to sell.
The next test of decentralisation should therefore be more demanding than how close government offices stand to citizens.
It should ask whether local government helps citizens build livelihoods that last.
The writer is the Director,
Institute of Local Government Studies.
