National Security Council Secretariat engages stakeholders on review of strategy at Damongo

The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has held a stakeholders' forum at Damongo as part of efforts to review the 2020 National Security Strategy (NSS) in response to emerging security threats and enhanced security system.

The forum sought to gather regional perspectives on security threats, risks, vulnerabilities, and emerging concerns confronting the country, and to obtain substantive stakeholder inputs that would contribute to the preparation of a revised, forward looking NSS.

Participants included security agencies, traditional authorities, religious leaders, civil society organisations, youth groups, market women, political party representatives, academia, transport operators and the media.

Mr Salisu Be-Awuribe Issifu, Savannah Regional Minister, speaking during the forum, said boundary conflicts, chieftaincy disputes, inter-communal tensions, artificial intelligence-generated misinformation, social media abuse and hate speech were growing concerns that needed proactive attention.

He commended the region’s laid-down traditional and historical chieftaincy succession structures and called for their proper documentation and codification to avert future chieftaincy disputes.

He said national security extended beyond the traditional mandate of security agencies to virtually every aspect of national development and urged security agencies and all stakeholders to collaborate closely with traditional authorities to safeguard the region’s relative peace and stability.

Mr George Loh, Director of Legal Affairs, NSCS said evolving security threats and new capabilities, alliances and governance approaches by States made it necessary to review and update Ghana’s national security policy and practices.

He said the new approach put citizens at the center of national security ensuring the revised NSS reflected not only expert and institutional knowledge but also the experiences, concerns and priorities of citizens and communities across the country.

He said the forum formed part of a broader, multi-phase review process, which also included technical threat assessments, consultations with Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and a subsequent national validation exercise.

Ghana launched the first NSS in 2020 to provide a coherent framework for addressing security threats to the state and citizens, under the Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, 2020 (Act 1030), the strategy is required to be reviewed within two years of inauguration of a new Parliament.

The Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, 2026 (Act 1168), which repealed Act 1030, subsequently shortened the review to a year.

GNA