The Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has urged Ghana’s regional and local authorities to replace reactive security measures with intelligence-led prevention.
Speaking at a workshop in Kumasi on the implementation of the Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, 2026 (Act 1168), Muntaka said the legislation would only succeed if it was effectively applied beyond the national level.
He told members of the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) that national security could not be managed from Accra alone.
“Let us move from reaction to prevention, from fragmented efforts to coordinated action and from information sharing to intelligence-led security management. National security cannot be secured from Accra alone but must be built in regions, districts and communities,” he stated.
Muntaka said MMDCEs were particularly important to the early identification of security concerns because they worked closely with communities.
He noted that their regular contact with chiefs, religious leaders, youth groups, traders, farmers and civil society organisations placed them in a strong position to recognise tensions before they escalated.
The minister called for closer intelligence and information sharing between security agencies, local assemblies and community leaders. He said no single institution possessed all the information needed to respond effectively to the country’s modern security environment.
The workshop formed part of the sensitisation of Ashanti Region’s REGSEC and MMDCEs on the new law.
Muntaka also urged REGSEC members to focus on identifying wider patterns instead of handling each incident as an isolated event.
He said that if criminal activity moved from one municipality to another, or if a local dispute began to pose a threat to neighbouring districts, the developing trend needed to be recognised early and referred to the appropriate authorities without delay.
The Interior Minister praised the Ashanti Regional Minister and REGSEC for their efforts to maintain peace in the region.
However, he cautioned that changing security threats required authorities to detect warning signs at an early stage and ensure that their response was coordinated across regions, districts and communities.
