The National Peace Council (NPC) has a backlog of unresolved conflict cases across the country, largely due to the lack of adequate staff to handle the cases.
As of now, there are over 300 disputes still pending, the Council’s Chairman, Most Rev. Emmanuel Fianu, has revealed.
Speaking in a television interview with TV3 on Sunday [Nov 30], Rev. Fianu said the council’s mediation efforts have been hampered by chronic underfunding, inadequate staffing, and insufficient infrastructure.
The NPC currently operates with only 83 permanent staff, far below the 400 required for regional coverage, and lack of offices at the district level despite handling a national caseload that requires around 1,000 personnel, he said.
“We do not have the human resources to deal with everything on our desk,” he said. “Mediation delayed is mediation denied.”
Rev. Fianu said only about half of the NPC’s 2025 budget allocation of GH₵5 million had been released as of November, covering mainly salaries and office operations. The remaining funds are critical for field mediation, workshops, conflict-prevention programmes, and rapid-response interventions.
“If we have to resolve a conflict, it is from the same money,” he said. “And if the disbursement delays, our work delays.”
He added that the Peace Fund, established two years ago under Act 818 to support the Council’s independence, has collected only GH₵400,000—an amount he described as “woefully insufficient” for nationwide operations.
