Ghana is sitting on a Gh¢42 billion opportunity; we need the courage to spend it differently

Every year, the Ghanaian government buys things. A lot of things. Buildings go up. Vehicles roll off lots. Office lights flicker on. Generators hum through load-shedding hours. Fertilizers are trucked to farms. If you add it all up, the public sector pushes through formal procurement channels somewhere between GH¢42 billion and GH¢48 billion worth of goods, works, and services annually. That is not a small number. It is between 14 and 18 percent of our entire economy.

Now here is the question worth asking: what are we actually getting for that money? And could we be getting considerably more?

The answer, based on a comprehensive study involving lifecycle cost modelling, interviews with senior procurement and policy practitioners, and a structured survey of procurement officers and private suppliers, is yes. Not marginally more. Substantially more. The shift from conventional public procurement to what experts call green or sustainable procurement is not an environmental hobby. It is, at its core, a financial argument. And in Ghana right now, the timing has never been better.

What “Green Procurement” Actually Means

Strip away the jargon, and green procurement is simple. Instead of buying the cheapest thing upfront, you buy the thing that costs the least over its entire working life. You factor in electricity bills, maintenance, replacement parts, and disposal costs. You prefer durable goods over cheap ones that fall apart in two years. You favour locally sourced materials that do not drain your foreign exchange reserves. You write specifications that reward efficiency rather than just low sticker prices.

It is the kind of thinking that any sensible person applies at home. If you are buying a fan or a pressing iron, you weigh the cost of running it for five years against the purchase price. Governments, surprisingly, often do not. They focus on the line item in the budget and move on. Ghana can do better than that.

The Numbers That Should Change the Conversation

Consider LED lighting. Government buildings across Ghana largely still rely on fluorescent systems. A fluorescent fixture costs roughly GH¢50. An LED equivalent runs about GH¢80, so on paper, the conventional option looks cheaper. Over ten years, however, that calculation flips completely. LEDs consume 75 percent less electricity, last five to seven times longer, and generate less heat, which also reduces the air conditioning burden. For a typical government office block with 500 fixtures, switching to LED saves GH¢110,000 over a decade. Multiply that across Ghana’s approximately 12,000 government facilities, and you are looking at GH¢132 million in annual operational savings. The investment pays itself back in roughly three years.

Solar photovoltaic installations tell a similar story. A rooftop system sized to meet 60 percent of a large government building’s daytime electricity demand costs around GH¢450,000 upfront. That sounds steep until you account for the GH¢216,000 in electricity costs it eliminates every single year. Over a 25-year system lifespan, the net present value of that investment, at a real discount rate of 8 percent, exceeds GH¢1.8 million per building. If just 30 percent of suitable government facilities installed solar over five years, the cumulative net present value across the portfolio would surpass GH¢2.2 billion, alongside between 15,000 and 18,000 installation and maintenance jobs. Those are jobs for Ghanaian electricians, engineers, and technicians, not imports.

The pattern holds across most categories studied. Green building designs deliver 25 to 40 percent lower total ownership costs over 30 years. Electric government vehicles return lifecycle savings compared to petrol alternatives, particularly as grid capacity improves. The research found, broadly, that green procurement delivers superior economic value across the majority of major expenditure categories despite initial acquisition cost premiums of 8 to 15 percent.

The 2026 Budget Has Already Opened the Door

Ghana’s 2026 Budget, themed ‘Resetting for Growth, Jobs, and Economic Transformation,’ allocates GH¢264.3 billion in total expenditure. President Mahama’s 24-Hour Economy initiative is specifically designed to reduce energy costs and extend productive hours. The Accelerated Export Development Programme is pushing Ghanaian manufacturers toward international markets. The Ghana Climate Prosperity Plan needs measurable emissions reductions.

Green public procurement threads directly through all three. Cheaper energy through efficient procurement enables businesses to run around the clock without electricity bills that make night operations unviable. Sustainability certifications built through systematic green procurement open export markets that Ghanaian products currently cannot access. Measurable reductions in government energy consumption contribute directly to National Determined Contribution commitments under the Paris Agreement, which in turn unlock Green Climate Fund financing.

In other words, these things are not separate. Green procurement is connective tissue. Used properly, it turns what looks like a compliance exercise into an economic strategy.

We Already Have Most of What We Need
One of the more encouraging findings from the research is that Ghana does not need to build green procurement from scratch. The Public Procurement Act, recently amended in 2025 through Act 1139, provides the legislative framework. The Ghana Electronic Procurement System, GHANEPS, already offers the transparency infrastructure. The Ghana Green Finance Taxonomy provides technical standards against which suppliers can be assessed. The Public Procurement Authority has the regulatory authority to issue binding guidance.

What is missing is coordination, clarity on mandates, and the political backing needed to make things happen. Seventy-three percent of procurement officers surveyed said they would support mandatory green specifications if adequate training were provided. That is not a hostile bureaucracy. That is a workforce waiting for directions.

The barriers that do exist are real but manageable. Procurement officers lack confidence in lifecycle cost analysis, a skill gap that targeted training can close. Verification of supplier environmental claims is genuinely difficult, a problem that third-party certification frameworks and tightened GHANEPS disclosure requirements can address. Small and medium enterprises worry about being squeezed out by larger competitors with resources to meet new standards, a concern that requires Green Enterprise Accelerators offering technical assistance, certification support, and guaranteed contract access to qualifying MSMEs.

What Needs to Happen Now
The policy recommendation that follows from this evidence is not complicated, even if the implementation requires sustained effort. The President should designate green procurement a strategic national priority with the same visibility as the 24-Hour Economy. The Public Procurement Authority should finalise Sustainable Public Procurement Regulations in 2026, specifying which categories require green specifications, how evaluation criteria should be weighted, and what verification procedures apply. The Ministry of Finance should train at least 500 procurement officers per year in lifecycle costing and environmental standards, through institutions like GIMPA and the technical universities, rather than relying on one-off workshops that produce no lasting change.

Development partners, including the World Bank, UNDP, GIZ, and USAID, have all expressed willingness to support this agenda. Ghana does not need to fund the entire transition from its own resources. The Green Climate Fund has existing windows for procurement-linked climate investments. What it needs is a credible framework to attract that support, and that framework is largely within reach.

The Honest Caveat
None of this happens automatically, and it would be dishonest to suggest otherwise. Lifecycle cost savings are real but require upfront capital that Ghana’s fiscal position currently constrains. Some green technologies still depend on international benchmarks because local price data is thin, meaning projections carry margins of error. Small suppliers will need genuine support rather than policy window dressing, or they will be left out entirely and the political coalition behind reform will fracture. Implementation sequencing matters enormously: a phased approach starting with LED lighting and solar, where the economics are clearest and the suppliers most available, builds credibility before moving to more complex categories like green construction.

The research is also honest about what it does not cover. Private sector procurement, rural procurement dynamics, and the consulting services sector all fall outside the study’s scope. Comprehensive sustainability transformation is a longer and harder road than any single policy instrument can travel alone.

Ghana’s Moment
Still, the convergence of factors right now is unusual. A budget explicitly themed around transformation. A presidential initiative that requires cheap and reliable energy. An export programme that needs sustainability credibility. A regional integration agenda through ECOWAS and the African Continental Free Trade Area that rewards countries setting procurement standards, so that others will eventually follow. A growing body of domestic evidence that economics works.

Ghana spent years looking at green procurement as something rich countries do when they can afford principles. The evidence now says it is something financially rational countries do when they want to stop wasting money. That reframe changes the conversation entirely.

The question is no longer whether Ghana can afford to buy differently. The question is whether it can afford not to.

About the Author
Surv. Engr. Emmanuel Norgah Bukari (PhD) is Chief Quantity Surveyor at Ghana's Ministry of Roads and Highways. Correspondence: [email protected]

Disclosure
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent the official position of the Ministry of Roads and Highways or any other government body