The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), says the quality of human capital is key for the sustained development and ultimate transformation of the country.

Dr Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampah, Director- General of the NDPC said Ghana’s quest for socio-economic transformation could not be divorced from its commitment to human capital development.

He said with the emergence of artificial intelligence and technological change in general, Ghana had no option than to invest in its people for the right human capital that spurred innovation and development.

He said it was particularly important as the country aspired to be a developed nation of high -income status by 2057.
Dr Mensah-Abrampah said this at the Sixth National Development Forum in Accra.

The Forum on the theme "A Critical Look at Ghana’s Human Capital Development Agenda: Where do we go from here?”, was organized by NDPC.

It registered more than 200 participants such as stakeholders in human capital development, academics and economists.
Dr Mensah-Abrampah said Ghana is blessed with abundant natural resources, however, the weak human capital development of its population, which was currently around 30 million, had not enabled the country to adequately exploit these resources to transform the economy.

He said Ghana’s significant improvement in school enrolment and health coverage was not associated with the corresponding improvement in quality.

He said the 2019 Human Capital Index (HCI) by the World Bank indicated a lower HCI for Ghana which stood at 44 percent compared to the average for lower-middle-income countries (LMIC) of 48 percent; though, this was above the average for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) of 40 percent.

The Director-General said: "sadly, Ghana is ranked the second lowest country on harmonized test scores for school children in the world, beating just Niger".

“Undoubtedly, this picture of low-quality education hinders national development and efforts to achieve high-income status by the time Ghana attains its centenary year after independence”, he added.