One hundred and forty students have graduated from the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) during its 7th Congregation with certificates in various Master of Arts (MA) and Master of Science (MSc) programmes.

The programmes include MA in Local Government Administration and Organisation and MSc in Lo­cal Government Financial Manage­ment, Development Management, Environmental Science, Policy and Management, and Local Economic Development.

The graduation ceremony, held at the ILGS Accra campus at Ogbojo on Saturday, was on the theme, “Beyond the Fund Trans­fer: Exploring the Prerequisites for Improved Financial Account­ability and Local Development in Ghana.”

Delivering the keynote address, the Minister of Local Govern­ment, Chieftaincy, and Religious Affairs, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, said that the success of the decentrali­sation programme of government was hinged on the capacity levels of local government functionaries and staff in the performance of their duties.

According to him, the ILGS played an important role in enhancing the decentralisation programmes through research and other specialised training pro­grammes it organised for staff and government functionaries at the local level.

Mr Ibrahim said that the process to ensure the transition of the ILGS into a university was on course, as he was working in part­nership with Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minister of Education, to make it materialise.

“Let me assure you that the University of Local Governance Development Bill 2025 will soon be presented to Parliament after the necessary cabinet consider­ation and approval for its promul­gation into law,” he said.

Mr Ibrahim said that his Min­istry would prioritise the capacity building of chiefs through the training programmes that would be organised by the ILSG, as they contributed to the local gover­nance system and development of the country as a whole.

He urged Metropolitan, Mu­nicipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to ensure that they made good use of the funds that had been released to them by gov­ernment through the District As­semblies’ Common Fund (DACF) to undertake various projects within their jurisdictions.

“We will be monitoring for strict compliance to ensure account­ability of the funds that has been released,” Mr Ibrahim stated.

He urged the graduands to apply the knowledge and skills obtained to transform the local governance system of the country.

Professor Lord Mensah, the Head of the Office of Local Government Service, identified the lack of detailed planning and budgeting, weak internal controls, poor identification and documen­tation of risks, low enforcement of sanctions, and transparency and citizen engagement, as some of the challenges of the country’s local governance system.

To address the challenges, Prof. Mensah highlighted the need for continuous capacity building for all local government actors, strength­ening the Regional Coordinat­ing Councils (RCCs) across the country and the standardisation of infrastructure projects.

Prof. Mensah stated that he had designed a capacity training framework that captured all 64 job classes within the MMDAs to help build the capacity of local govern­ment actors.

The Director of ILGS, Prof. Nicholas Awortwi, stated that the ILGS was able to achieve more than 80 per cent of its planned target under the 2020-2024 Stra­tegic Plan, which was completed last year.

 BY LAWRENCE VOMEFA AKPALU & BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY