Procurement must be an elective subject at secondary schools, education minister advocates

The Education Minister, Dr.Yaw Osei Adutwum, advocates for introducing procurement and strategic sourcing as elective subjects in the secondary education curriculum to give a firm foundation to students who might want to take on the profession in the latter stages of their education.

He made this call when the leadership of the Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply (GIPS) paid a courtesy call on him to submit the policy document and draft copy of the Procurement Practicing Bill for onward submission to the Cabinet.

The team was led by the President of the Institute, Mr. Simon Annan. In attendance was also Professor Douglas Boateng one of the world’s renowned experts on strategic sourcing and the only distinguished fellow of the institute.

Mr Annan emphasized that the passage of the Procurement Practicing Bill is a game changer because it will provide standards, accountable procurement, and regulations for practitioners to responsibly undertake their functions to support Act 663 as amended ethically.

According to the minister, the tenet of the procurement profession requires discipline, ethical standards, code of conduct, and practical applications, which should be introduced to aspiring professionals at the early stages of their education.

“The fundamental aim of this proposal is to champion the integration of procurement as an elective discipline within Ghana's second-cycle educational framework,” the minister added.

Therefore, he tasked GIPS's leadership to work with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) and related parties to develop the right course content and methodologies for implementation.

President of (GIPS), Mr. Simon Annan, who welcomed the minister’s recommendation, indicated that graduates who aspire to study procurement and supply chain at the university level after senior high school will be well-equipped with the fundamental understanding of the practical application of procurement.

He emphasized that the study of procurement in second-cycle institutions will expose the citizenry to an inextricable link between procurement, industrialization, and sustainable job creation for long-term socio-economic development.

"It is a good decision because it supports the students to understand the real application of procurement or the linkage between procurement and sustainable development in the country,” he said.

“Most people are in the procurement and supply profession by accident, but when it is studied as an elective course in the senior high schools, there will be a foundation to begin from,” the GIPS president added.

Commenting on the clarion call from the education minister, Prof Douglas Boateng the former nonexecutive chairman of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) said, “Without local and regional wide professionalization of procurement, Ghana and the rest of the continent’s long-term industrialization and socioeconomic development will continue to remain a pipe dream.

I hope that the call by the minister will overwhelmingly be endorsed by the government, CSOs, and all the political parties as it is in the nation's long-term interest," the professor concluded.