Electoral Reforms
Aside being a brilliant and accomplished lawmaker, his expertise in change management was experienced on a
national scale when he was appointed as the Director of Elections for the NPP during the 2012 general
election. His resolve to enhance transparency and fairness led to positive cardinal changes in Ghana’s
electoral processes with the most famous one being the introduction and entrenchment of biometric data
capture and the use of Biometric Voter Register (BVR) for the unique identification of voters in Ghana. This
milestone change was heralded with the mantra “No biometric, No vote”.
Ministry of Education
Dr. Prempeh’s tenure as Minister of Education saw several important innovative reforms which
include;
Free SHS Programme
The flagship promise of the new government, the Free Senior High School programme was his first major
undertaking, and this was rolled out under his watch in September 2017, only nine months after the NPP took
office. By the end of its third year of implementation, the SHS population had jumped from 800,000 to a
record breaking 1.2million. As part of the Free SHS programme, he ensured that quality measures such as
provision of teaching and learning materials and intervention allowance for teachers among others were put
in place so as not to compromise the education of these young students. Further, the innovative Double Track
system was introduced in 2018 to help cope with the surge in demand for certain senior high schools, which
has given the government the space to embark on extensive infrastructural development in those schools.
In 2020, the first batch of Free SHS students sat their WASSCE. On almost every single indicator, there has
been an improvement in the scores. In addition to this, A total of 411 out of the 465 candidates who scored
grade A in all subjects at the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), were
students from Ghana pioneering the Government’s free Senior High School (SHS) Programme.
The several interventions government put in, including free core textbooks to every student, training for
Science and Mathematics tutors in difficult topic areas, government-sponsored academic interventions for all
students and support for low-performing schools, among others, appeared to have paid off to help improve
these positive results. This trend gives credence to the government’s argument that given the opportunities
and the right support and intervention, a child is likely to perform creditably in school.
Curriculum Review
In 2017, the Ministry, working through the National Council on Curriculum & Assessment
(NaCCA) prioritized
curriculum revision and pursued it aggressively. Within the period under review, KG – Primary 6 curriculum
was completed, transitioning us from an objective-based curriculum to a 21st century standards-based
curriculum. Almost all 153,000 KG and primary school teachers across the country received initial training
and continue to update their skills and competencies on the new curriculum. Roll-out commenced in September
2019 at the beginning of the 2019/2020 academic year.
Technical, Vocational, Education & Training (TVET)
In this sub-sector, the narrative has always been that of poor coordination, incoherent management
structures and governance arrangement, all of which retarded the positive development of TVET and skills
training sub-sector. Given the potential of TVET to our national development, Ministry of Education, through
the Council for Technical Vocational Education & Training (COTVET) developed a big vision for the
sub-sector, leading to the development of a 5-year TVET Strategic Plan that is guiding the development on
the TVET and skills training front.
In June 2019, the Ministry of Education, through COTVET launched the MyTVET campaign which is aimed at
changing the negative perception about TVET. The TVET Ambassadors will complement other initiatives such as
the Skills Competition, radio and television advertisements, TVET clubs in Junior High Schools, TVET Career
Guidance and Counselling and roadshows, among others.
Ministry of Energy
Following the New Patriotic Party’s victory in the 2020 elections President Akufo-Addo appointed Dr.
Prempeh as the Minister for Energy in February 2021, a position he holds till date. Dr. Prempeh has been
credited for his sterling leadership, leading energy sector stakeholders to keep the lights on and the
nation moving amidst exogenous shocks manifest in the country’s economic challenges.
Dr. Prempeh’s tenure as Energy Minister has seen him actualizing the vision of His Excellency the President
for the energy sector, subsumed under five broad areas namely keeping the lights on, keeping the nation
moving through the availability of affordable petroleum products and increasing Ghana’s shares in petroleum
resources. He has also been leading efforts at ensuring that Ghana’s energy transition happens on our own
terms and been strengthening the Ghanaian content and Ghanaian capacity framework of the energy sector.
On keeping the lights on agenda, Dr. Prempeh has been leading the charge in the prudent addition to
generation capacity, enhancing the efficiency of thermal plants and increasing share of renewable energy.
Ghana’s energy access rate currently stands at 88.85% and he continuously leads efforts at universal access
by the end of 2024
On keeping the nation moving Dr. Prempeh’s leadership has ensured that, amidst global crisis where some
parts of the world experienced shortages in petroleum products Ghana continues to experience constant supply
of fuel. He continues to rally around value chain players in the Gold for Oil programme to ensure the
cushion of the Ghanaian consumer in the face of global challenges. Dr. Prempeh continues to ensure the
availability of quality fuel for economic growth amidst the global push for a net-zero carbon future. He
continues to channel efforts towards the implementation of policies and programmes that will ensure that
there is no disruption in fuel supply, deployment of decarbonization mechanisms, and the promotion of clean
cooking solutions.
Under Dr. Prempeh, there has, among others, been the commissioning of an additional 30,000 barrels per day
of crude oil production from Jubilee Southeast. This is in the context of the implementation of the Greater
Jubilee Full Field Plan of Development. The Minister continues to whip up investor interest in Ghana’s
upstream petroleum industry through policy reforms and data enhancement.
Under Dr. Prempeh Ghana has developed its Energy Transition Framework which provides a clear blueprint
towards achieving net-zero emissions. The framework was launched by His Excellency the President at COP27 at
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in 2022. Again, Ghana has converted the transition framework into an investment plan
with a near-term investment opportunity in clean energy investment infrastructure to the tune of $500bn.
This was also launched by President Akufo-Addo on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in
New York, September 2023.
On the Ghanaian Content and Ghanaian Participation front, Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation)
(Amendment) Regulations, 2021. (L.I. 2435) has been passed to include channel partnerships and strategic
alliances in petroleum upstream
Dr. Prempeh has also ensured the amendment of the NPA Act 2005(Act 691) to enable the enforcement of
Ghanaian Content and Ghanaian Participation in petroleum downstream
He also continues to ensure the enforcement of the Local Content and Local Participation Regulation, 2017
(L.I. 2354) in the Electricity Supply Industry
