Ghana has a world-class story to tell: cultural sites, coastlines, festivals and a compelling history that already draws visitors. Yet for years one familiar complaint keeps returning in survey feedback, travel blogs and presidential commentaries: Poor Customer Service. In a public media encounter on 10 September 2025, President John Dramani Mahama explicitly warned that weak service delivery at tourist sites and in hospitality outlets is undermining Ghana’s ability to grow the tourism sector. He blamed a mix of poor attitudes, untrained staff and owners who hire unqualified relatives instead of professionals – and he urged change.

The question policymakers, industry leaders and citizens must answer is not whether the problem exists – it does – but who is responsible for fixing it: the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), tourism stakeholders (hotels, restaurants, tour operators, traditional caterers, bartenders, etc), or both? Below I set out the facts, the institutional roles, the practical realities on the ground and a clear set of recommendations for shared accountability.

What the President said (and why it matters)

President Mahama’s remarks – made publicly during a presidential media encounter in September 2025 – called attention to recurring visitor feedback that Ghana’s service culture falls short. He described situations where customers feel treated as a burden rather than an opportunity and where business owners employ untrained staff who cannot handle payments, change or basic service tasks. He said the problem reduces repeat visits and harms the country’s tourism brand. That high-level rebuke matters because it signals political will to prioritize service standards and because presidential attention tends to accelerate policy or enforcement actions.

Institutional responsibilities – what the GTA (and Ministry) are mandated to do

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) – now operating under the national tourism agency/authority structure and overseen by the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Arts & Culture – has clear statutory responsibilities that are directly relevant to service quality: licensing and regulation of tourism enterprises (accommodation, catering, travel & tour operations), promotion and marketing of the destination, product development and conducting research to inform standards and policy. The GTA’s mandate explicitly connects it to certification, classification and the promotion of service excellence across tourism businesses.

Put simply, GTA’s formal levers include:

• Regulation & licensing (it can set minimum operational standards).
• Classification & certification (star ratings, service benchmarks).
• Training facilitation & capacity-building programmes (it can design or require training for license renewal).
• Promotion of service excellence in destination marketing (shifting emphasis from product-only promotion to “experience” promotion).

However, the GTA cannot single-handedly deliver frontline service to guests – that is the role of private businesses and individual staff.

The private sector and local stakeholders where service is actually delivered

Day-to-day service is provided by private sector businesses: hotels, restaurants, tour operators, transport providers, guides, craft sellers and market traders. These actors control hiring, training budgets, staff supervision, pay rates, and the customer-facing culture in each outlet. If a guest receives poor attention, the immediate causes are most often local: lack of training, low wages, weak management oversight, poor cash-handling procedures or a workplace culture that undervalues customer care.

In short:

• GTA sets the rules and provides support.
• Operators and employers implement service delivery (or fail to).
• Employees (frontline staff) enact the customer experience.

All three therefore share responsibility but at different levels and with distinct levers.

Why blaming only, the GTA is incomplete

It’s tempting to ask the GTA to “fix” service across the country. However, the Authority’s power is structural and regulatory: it can raise the bar by tightening licensing conditions, requiring mandatory customer-service certifications and running mass training programmes but it cannot run a restaurant or manage payroll for every hotel. Enforcement capacity is also finite: monitoring hundreds (or thousands) of small businesses across the country requires resources, inspection systems and political backing to impose sanctions when standards are not met. The Ministry and GTA can catalyse change, but they need cooperation and resources from the private sector and local government to translate standards into consistent on-the-ground service.

Why blaming only, the private sector is incomplete

Likewise, private operators often argue that they need support: affordable, high-quality training; incentives for upgrading (tax breaks, micro-credit); and a destination-wide marketing push that makes investing in service worthwhile. Small operators may lack access to formal hospitality training or the funds to recruit experienced staff. Without an enabling ecosystem – one where the GTA signals expected standards, provides training pathways, and enforces minimum compliance – many small businesses will continue to underperform even if owners want to improve.

Practical barriers that cause poor service

Across reporting and visitor accounts the usual culprits reappear:

• Low levels of professional training and skills gaps among frontline staff.
• Informal hiring practices (nepotism/relatives) that prioritise convenience over competence. (This was a point President Mahama highlighted.)
• Weak enforcement of licensing conditions and service standards.
• Poor remuneration and staff motivation; high staff turnover.
• Lack of customer-service culture embedded in business models and reward systems.
• Small businesses lacking access to quality training and finance to professionalise.

A responsibility framework – shared accountability

A workable way forward is to treat the issue as shared accountability across four tiers:

1. Government / Ministry & GTA (policy, regulation, enforcement, support):
   • Revise licensing conditions to include proof of customer-service training or certification.
   • Create a publicly visible classification/scorecard for visitor sites (consumer-facing ratings).
   • Fund scalable training (e.g., short modular customer service courses) and incentives for compliance.
2. Private sector leaders (hotels, restaurant associations, tour operators):
   • Adopt in-house mandatory service training and mentorship for managers.
   • Introduce simple quality assurance systems: checklists, mystery shoppers, guest feedback loops.
   • Pool resources (1% Tourism Levy) for industry-wide training and micro-financing for upgrades.
3. Local governments & communities:
   • Support skills development and certify local guides and artisans.
   • Promote local accountability for market and transport services.
4. Consumers & civil society:
   • Use feedback channels (online reviews, formal complaints to GTA) to hold businesses accountable.
   • Civil society and media should spotlight best practice and call out chronic offenders.

Concrete recommendations (short-term and medium-term)

• Short term (3 – 12 months): GTA in collaboration with Hotel, Tourism and Catering Training Institute (HOCATT) to launch mandatory short customer – service certification for all licensed accommodation and key tourist sites; publish a “top 10” quick fixes for small operators; run a national awareness campaign linking service to visitor spending.
• Medium term (12–36 months): Introduce an incentive scheme (tax credits, recognition awards) for operators who achieve and maintain service benchmarks; embed customer-service modules in hospitality vocational curricula; set up a public complaints’ dashboard.

Conclusion

President Mahama’s public admonition on 10 September 2025 should be read as a call for coordinated action, not a demand that a single agency perform miracles. The GTA and the Ministry have the statutory mandate to set standards, inspect, promote and support training – but tourism stakeholders are the ones who must implement and sustain excellent service day in, day out. The fix therefore requires both: stronger, better-resourced regulation and capacity support from government and GTA, together with changed business practices, investment in staff and a culture shift inside private enterprises.

If Ghana wants more tourists to not only arrive but also return and recommend the destination, the country must turn presidential concern into practical, funded, joint action where standards are clear, enforcement is real, and owners accept that great customer service is not a cost but an investment in repeat revenue.