By Philip Antoh
The Mahama administration has ordered the Ghana Geological Survey Authority (GGSA) to vet every building permit application nationwide, in a sweeping intervention designed to halt the perennial collapse of structures and the destruction of waterways that has turned seasonal rains into annual tragedies.
Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah issued the directive following a GH₵28 million government investment to revive the country’s earthquake monitoring network infrastructure that had, according to the Minister, been left “non-functional” and “neglected” for years.
“All of them were not working. All of them needed upgrade one way or the other,” Buah said, crediting the current administration with recognising the urgency of the situation.
The directive, which requires developers to secure approvals from both the Ministry of Works and Housing and the GGSA before any permit is granted, represents a significant shift in Ghana’s regulatory approach.
But questions remain over whether the new regime will be enforced, or whether it will suffer the same fate as previous reforms that died on the desks of under-resourced agencies.
Ghana’s building industry has been haunted by a grim pattern: poorly constructed structures crumbling under their own weight, often with fatal consequences. In recent years, buildings have collapsed in Accra, Kumasi and elsewhere, exposing a regulatory system that has been either ineffective or complicit.
Buah argued that comprehensive seismic audits could have prevented many of these tragedies. “If the Ghana Geological Survey is able to do this seismic audit, we wouldn’t be waking up to see buildings coming down,” he asserted.
The Minister has also directed the GGSA to enforce higher seismic safety standards a move that could impose significant costs on developers accustomed to cutting corners.
Beyond building safety, the directive targets the persistent problem of construction on waterways and the encroachment on wetlands. For years, developers have built on floodplains with impunity, often with the connivance of local authorities.
The result has been catastrophic flooding in cities like Accra, where residents have watched their homes submerged while mansions illegally constructed on wetlands remain standing.
Whether the GGSA has the capacity to police this vast terrain is another matter. The Authority, long underfunded and understaffed, has struggled to fulfil its existing mandate. The new order may require significant expansion of its technical and enforcement capabilities investment that has not been announced.
Buah framed the initiative as part of a national “reset” aimed at improving public safety and transparency. With upgraded seismic data centres, he promised that Ghanaians would receive timely warnings of earthquake and tremor risks.
“The good news is that we are able to tell the people of Ghana that we will provide them with up-to-date data,” he said.
Yet the history of such promises is not reassuring. Ghana has a long track record of investing in early warning systems that fall into disrepair once donor funding dries up or political attention shifts. The government’s commitment to sustaining the GGSA’s revitalised capacity will be tested in the coming years.
The directive also challenges a deeply entrenched political economy in which building permits are often secured through connections rather than compliance. Local authorities, property developers and traditional leaders have long operated in a grey area where regulations are selectively enforced.
By centralising permit vetting with the GGSA, the Minister is taking on powerful interests. Whether the administration has the political will to follow through or whether it will retreat in the face of resistance from the construction industry remains an open question.
For now, the message from the Ministry is clear: Ghana’s buildings must be safe, its wetlands protected, and its seismic risks monitored. But as past experience shows, directives from Accra do not always translate into change on the ground.