Deployment of AI rakes in GH¢1bn a month for GRA – Deputy Chief of Staff calls for enhanced Ghana, Burkina Faso collaboration

The deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public service has yielded record returns, with the Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) AI trade valuation platform collecting GH¢1 billion in a single month, the Deputy Chief of Staff in Charge of Administration has said. 

Addressing the maiden international edition of the Human Resource (HR) Café in Accra last Monday, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo said the AI-driven reforms at the Passport Office, the GRA and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority had cut bureaucratic bottlenecks, improved turnaround times and boosted revenue and transparency.

Ms Bampoe Addo called for deeper collaboration between Ghana and Burkina Faso on some of those public policy reforms, stressing that AI and human capital investment held the key to both nations’ success.

She affirmed that institutions are only as strong as the people who run them, adding that “human resource management is not a support function to public administration; it is the engine of it”.

The Deputy Chief of Staff said discipline and accountability, digital service delivery and coordinated planning were practical areas the two countries could learn from each other.

On discipline and accountability, she cited Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL), the Code of Conduct for Government Appointees and the audit regime under Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), alongside Burkina Faso’s example, where President Ibrahim Traoré reversed salary increases for officials while remaining on his captain’s pay.

On coordinated planning, Ms Bampoe Addo mentioned Ghana’s Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies, the National Development Planning Commission’s SDG coordination, and the 24-Hour Economy Authority’s job creation drive, and compared them with Burkina Faso’s domestic gold refinery and cotton processing centre, which she said were strong platforms for collaboration.

The Deputy Chief of Staff cautioned against AI risks, including job displacement and data insecurity, stressing: “Technology must remain the servant, and the human being the master.”

She urged participants to use the six-day Café to chart a joint roadmap for productivity

The Head of the Burkina Faso Organising Committee, Ousmane Sandwidi, said hosting the 10th edition of the RH Café in Accra marked a historic step in fostering fraternity between the two countries.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, he said the Café, birthed 10 years ago as a platform for HR practitioners, managers and students, had grown into a community dedicated to making human capital the engine of transformation in public and private administration.

“By coming to Accra, we wanted to create a meeting that goes beyond borders.

We came to learn and listen, but we also came to share who we are,” he said.

Mr Sandwidi expressed gratitude to President John Dramani Mahama and Ghanaian authorities for their warm reception since the project’s presentation in November 2025, noting, “at no time did we feel that we had crossed a border”.

He stressed that Ghana and Burkina Faso were bound by history, geography, trade and deep human ties, recalling past pairings of Dr Kwame Nkrumah with Maurice Yaméogo and Jerry Rawlings with Thomas Sankara, and today’s bond between President Mahama and Captain Ibrahim Traoré.