In a landmark move with profound implications for Ghana’s governance and economic future, the Constitutional Review Committee has submitted a report proposing to legally bind Parliament to the nation’s long-term development agenda. Presented to President John Dramani Mahama on December 22, 2025, the core proposal seeks to end the cycle of policy discontinuity by constitutionally mandating that all legislation and public expenditure align with a coherent National Development Plan and the Directive Principles of State Policy.
Chaired by Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh of CDD-Ghana, the Committee diagnoses a critical flaw in Ghana’s democratic system: the decoupling of lawmaking from strategic planning. The report, “Transforming Ghana: From Electoral Democracy to Developmental Democracy,” argues that laws and budgets crafted in isolation from a national framework have led to regulatory volatility, fragmented spending, and short-term political decision-making. This environment, the Committee contends, erodes investor confidence and undermines sustainable development, as each new administration feels compelled to dismantle or ignore its predecessor’s projects to create its own legacy.
The proposed constitutional amendment would institute a rigorous new standard for lawmaking. Every Bill introduced in Parliament would require a memorandum explicitly demonstrating its alignment with the National Development Plan and the Directive Principles of State Policy (Chapter 6 of the 1992 Constitution). These principles outline the state’s fundamental objectives for economic, social, and cultural progress, providing a philosophical bedrock for the more technical development plan.
More significantly, the proposal creates a powerful mechanism for transparency and accountability. If a Bill “materially departs” from the National Development Plan, it must publicly identify the divergence and provide a reasoned justification proving the departure serves the long-term national interest. This framework, inspired by practices in advanced economies, forces a higher burden of proof for politically expedient but strategically misaligned policies. For businesses, this promises greater policy predictability in critical sectors like taxation, trade, energy, and infrastructure.
The Committee’s vision extends to the national purse. It proposes tightening constitutional budget rules to ensure all government appropriations—including the annual budget and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF)—must show how they advance the Plan’s objectives. This directly targets the perennial issue of budgets favoring short-term, constituency-focused projects over strategic investments in productivity, human capital, and national infrastructure. Any expenditure diverging from the Plan must be disclosed and justified, reinforcing fiscal discipline and transparency.
At the heart of this reform is a shift in Ghana’s constitutional identity—from an “electoral democracy”, focused on managing the cycle of elections, to a “developmental democracy”, where governance is consistently evaluated by its impact on improving citizens’ lives. This requires anchoring a long-term National Development Plan within the constitution, with oversight by a strengthened National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), ensuring it survives changes in government.
The Committee’s authority is rooted in an unprecedented consultative process. It engaged over 21,500 Ghanaians through zonal public hearings, thematic expert panels, and targeted sessions with MPs, the judiciary, business leaders, and civil society. Digital outreach generated hundreds of thousands of impressions. This broad engagement underscores a public mandate for change and counters the critique that such reforms are elite-driven.
The report warns that without such systemic change, Ghana risks becoming a “choiceless democracy”—where peaceful elections occur but yield little improvement in governance or socio-economic outcomes. While the 1992 Constitution has secured political stability and civil liberties, it has failed to consistently translate democratic competition into tangible development.
The proposed binding National Development Plan is just one pillar of a sweeping set of recommendations across nine chapters. Other key proposals include:
- Executive & Legislature: Extending the presidential term to five years (while retaining the two-term limit), lowering the presidential age to 30, taxing presidential salaries, and crucially, decoupling ministerial appointments from Parliament to strengthen legislative oversight and ministerial accountability.
- Economic Governance: Stricter controls on tax exemptions and public debt, enhanced independence for the Bank of Ghana and the Government Statistician, and constitutional recognition for the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) to enforce merit-based leadership in state-owned enterprises.
- Deepening Democracy: Capping Parliament at 276 members, reforming political party financing and internal democracy, and establishing an independent regulator for political parties.
- Accountability: Sweeping judicial reforms, the creation of a constitutional Anti-Corruption and Ethics Commission, and measures to depoliticize the public service and enforce asset declaration.
President Mahama has pledged to form an implementation committee in early 2026, potentially including members of the Review Committee to preserve institutional knowledge. The political landscape may be uniquely favorable: the ruling NDC holds a parliamentary supermajority, and as this is President Mahama’s final term, he may have less incentive to resist reforms that constrain executive power. Furthermore, a consensus exists across party lines that the president’s outsized control over appointments has stifled the development of independent institutions.
This effort follows previous stalled attempts, notably in 2010. The current Committee’s rapid work and the alignment of political stars suggest a higher chance of success. If enacted, these reforms would represent the most significant recalibration of Ghana’s governance since 1992, moving the nation toward a system where democracy is measured not just by the freedom to vote, but by the sustained and planned improvement in the welfare of all citizens.