Ghana became independent with a civil service built for a colony. In 1961, the Nkrumah government and the United Nations Special Fund set up a school to change that: the Institute of Public Administration, created to train public servants who could plan and run national, regional and local services. On the hill at Achimota where it settled, it is now the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, known to everyone as GIMPA.
A joint project
The institute’s own history describes its founding as a joint Ghana Government and United Nations Special Fund project. Newly independent African countries needed administrators quickly, and the UN backed training institutions across the continent.
Handed over
The UN’s joint sponsorship ended in 1966, and the institute was formally handed to the Government of Ghana. In 1969 it was renamed the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration to reflect a wider role that included management training for the private sector as well as the civil service.
Greenhill
GIMPA’s campus is known as Greenhill. The name is credited to Nicholas T. Clerk, who served as the institute’s rector from 1977 to 1982. The campus sits near Achimota, beside the road that runs towards Legon.
Standing on its own feet
In 2001, as part of public sector reforms backed by the World Bank, GIMPA was taken off government subvention and became self-financing. It had to earn its income from fees and programmes, a major change for a state institution.
A public university
The GIMPA Act, 2004 (Act 676) established it as a public university with administrative and financial autonomy. It expanded its degree programmes and set up schools of business, law, public service and technology.
The law school
The GIMPA Faculty of Law became one of the better-known private-market routes to a law degree in Ghana, attracting working professionals who study part-time. It has been part of the long national debate about access to legal education and entry to the Ghana School of Law.
Executive education
Many senior civil servants, military officers and business managers have passed through GIMPA’s short courses and executive programmes. Its weekend and evening classes suit students who hold full-time jobs in Accra.
Traffic and access
Students know GIMPA for its hilltop setting and for the traffic on the roads around it at rush hour. The campus sits close to the Achimota Forest and the busy Legon road.
Nkrumah’s government wanted a civil service that could run an independent country. Six decades later, the school it founded with the UN still trains many of the people who run Ghana’s ministries, though they now pay their own way.
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