This week’s Re-Imagine Ghana begins a necessary journey into the deeper layer of our development problem: mindset. Not policies. Not slogans. Not manifestos. But the underlying beliefs that quietly determine how power is allocated, how institutions behave, and ultimately why progress stalls.
We begin with one of the most consequential of these mindsets — ascription.
Ghana’s development challenge is often framed in familiar terms, policy gaps, weak institutions, lack of enforcement. All true. But these are downstream effects. The upstream problem is less discussed and far more consequential: how we assign status.
Put plainly, Ghana remains an ascriptive society. Status is largely assigned rather than earned. Survey data suggests that roughly 88 percent of Ghanaians believe social standing derives from family background, credentials, or political connections, while only a small minority place primary weight on performance.
This matters more than it seems. Because in any society, how status is assigned determines who rises. And who rises determines how institutions perform.
If we continue to reward identity over competence, we will continue to produce leadership that reflects that choice.
The Quiet Machinery of Ascription
There is an obvious layer to this problem, political patronage, network-driven appointments, and loyalty masquerading as qualification. But there is also a quieter, more pervasive layer embedded in everyday life.
It is in how we address one another.
Honorifics such as Dr., Prof., Hon., Nana, and Rev. are not just polite labels. They are signals. They shape perception. They influence who is taken seriously and who is deferred to.
In Ghana, those signals are distorted.
Titles are inconsistently applied, often inflated, and frequently detached from verifiable competence. We have created a system where titles confer authority even when they do not correspond to capability.
I would go further. We have allowed the language of respect to become a substitute for the substance of performance.
And once that happens, ascription becomes self-reinforcing.
If we are serious about moving from ascription to merit, we must start by fixing how status is signaled. And one of the most practical levers sits with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).
I would argue that GTEC should lead the creation of a National Honorific Standard, designed to restore clarity, discipline, and credibility to how Ghana assigns recognition.
What follow is how I would structure it, and what I am recommending.
When Title Inflation Becomes Institutional Risk
This is not speculation. It is already happening.
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has repeatedly warned that misuse of honorary academic titles has become serious enough to threaten institutional integrity. In 2025, the Commission stated that adopting titles such as Dr. or Professor based solely on honorary awards is unlawful and punishable under Act 1023.
More troubling, GTEC revealed that some individuals have used such titles on CVs and even secured academic or leadership roles based on them. That is not harmless exaggeration. That is status fraud entering the machinery of governance and institutions.
The Commission has gone further, cautioning politicians, business leaders, and religious figures to stop the practice and warning that enforcement – including prosecution – would follow. It even had to clarify that “honorary professor” is not a recognized category within Ghana’s tertiary system.
That should concern all of us.
Because it means we are no longer dealing with social habit. We are dealing with systemic distortion.
Why Titles Matter More Than We Admit
This is not about etiquette. It is about incentives.
If titles are loosely assigned and socially powerful, people will optimize for acquiring titles. If titles are disciplined and tied to achievement, people will optimize for competence.
While a standardized honorific system may feel new in our context, it is not new globally. In many societies where merit and performance have driven development, there has been a deliberate move to discipline or minimize titles. The objective has been to keep attention on what actually matters – performance, delivery, and outcomes – not symbolic status.
As institutional standards elsewhere have shown, excessive or inconsistent use of honorifics distorts clarity and inflates perceived authority.
Ghana today operates in a form of honorific inflation. And like any inflation, it erodes value.
The Hidden Danger: When Titles Travel Across Domains
There is an even more subtle problem that we must confront directly.
Titles are often used outside the domain in which they are relevant.
It is not uncommon to see someone described as Reverend while occupying a financial services role, or an academic title carried into governance as if scholarship in one field automatically confers authority in another.
This creates confusion.
More dangerously, it transfers credibility from one domain into another where it may be entirely undeserved. Respect becomes detached from competence in the actual field of decision-making.
That is how ascription quietly compromises governance.
People are deferred to not because they are qualified for the role they occupy, but because of titles earned—or assumed—in entirely different domains.
A National Honorific Reset: What I Would Do
If we are serious about moving from ascription to merit, we must start by fixing how status is signaled. And one of the most practical levers sits with GTEC.
I believe GTEC should lead the creation of a National Honorific Standard, anchored in clarity, discipline, and verification.
Rule 1: Use Titles Sparingly and Only Once
Honorifics should appear only on first reference, and only when they provide meaningful context. After that, individuals should be referred to by name.
Example: Professor Kwame Mensah / Mensah
Example: Dr. Ama Boateng / Boateng
This reduces inflation and keeps attention on substance.
Rule 2: Restore Precision to “Dr.”
In public communication, Dr. should be reserved for medical doctors. Where relevant, academic qualifications can be stated explicitly rather than implied through titles.
For PhD holders, clarity should replace assumption:
Kwame Mensah, who holds a PhD in economics…
This restores precision and avoids misleading signals. It eliminates ambiguity and restores clarity.
Rule 3: Use Functional Titles for Public Officials — Not Prestige Titles
We must move away from vague labels such as Hon. and toward role-based identification.
Write Minister for Finance, not Hon. Minister.
Titles should describe responsibility, not elevate identity.
Rule 4: Enforce Context-Specific Use of Titles
Titles must only be used within the domain in which they are relevant.
Religious titles should not appear in corporate or financial contexts. Academic titles should not be used to imply authority in governance unless directly relevant.
If someone is operating as a bank executive, refer to them by their role in banking, not by a religious or unrelated title.
This is how we eliminate false signals of authority.
Rule 5: Standardize Usage Across Media and Government
This is where reform becomes systemic.
All newspapers in Ghana and all government publications should be required to follow the same national honorific standard. Media does not merely reflect society. It shapes it. If newspapers inflate titles, society inflates status. If newspapers discipline titles, society begins to discipline how it assigns respect.
Routine courtesy titles should be minimized. Titles should be applied consistently, sparingly, and only where relevant.
Media shapes perception. If the media inflates titles, society inflates status. If the media disciplines titles, society begins to discipline how it assigns respect.
Rule 6: Create a Verifiable National Registry
All recognized titles must be anchored in verification.
A public registry should link titles to accredited institutions, recognized qualifications, and formal roles.
No verification, no recognition.
Aligning Signals with Development
Countries that have made progress did not do so by accident. They aligned their cultural signals with their development priorities.
They reduced noise. They disciplined how authority is communicated. They ensured that recognition followed performance.
That is what we must do.
It is about dismantling one of the hidden walls to development, the quiet system that elevates status over substance.
We often search for big, dramatic reforms while ignoring the everyday practices that shape behavior. Honorific disorder is one of those practices. It teaches society that appearance outranks performance.
That is precisely the lesson we must now unlearn.
The Path Forward
Finally, all recognized titles should be anchored in a public registry linked to accredited institutions, recognized qualifications, and formal roles. No verification, no recognition.
Some will say this is a small reform. It is not.
This is about changing our ascriptive mindset and bringing down one of the hidden walls to development. We often search for big dramatic reforms while ignoring the quiet ways in which society teaches itself who matters and why. Honorific disorder is one of those quiet teachers. It tells people that appearance outranks performance, that symbolism outranks substance, and that status can be worn rather than earned.
That is precisely the lesson Ghana must now unlearn.
I believe Ghana’s problem is not that we lack talent. It is that we have not yet built a system that consistently recognizes and elevates that talent in the right way.
Fix the signals, and you begin to fix the system. Fix the system, and you begin to fix outcomes.
In every society, what is respected is what is pursued. It is time we make competence, not titles, the thing we pursue.
Next week I will take this argument further and show how Ghana can extend this logic into specific institutions, so that merit is not just an idea but a habit-forming expectation built into the way our society works. I will talk about how our SOEs and institutions can be used to change this mindset.
Hene Aku Kwapong, CDD Ghana Fellow, Ecobank Ghana Board Member, Former Head of Management for Royal Bank of Scotland EMEA Credit Markets, formerly of Deutsche Bank, Microsoft, GE Capital and NY Economic Development Corporation.
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