The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu (MP), has inaugurated the new Council of the Chartered Institute of Human Resource Management, Ghana (CIHRM).

The 11-member CIHRM Council comprised the following: Florence Hutchful (President), Dorothy Asare (Vice President), Dr. Francis Eduku (CEO of the Institute), Dr. Edward Kwapong (Immediate-Past President), Nana Kwabena Yeboah (Executive Member), Dora Siaw-Lartey (Executive Member), Eric Sewonu Adadevoh (Executive Member), Louise Agyemang-Barning (Executive Member), Anita Andrews Nanfuri (GTEC Representative), Truedy A. Osae (GEA Representative), and Comfort Dede Aki Ashiagbor (Ministry of Education Representative).

Inaugurating the Council, the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, charged the Council to pay particular attention to three key areas that were of grave concern to the President.

These concerns, he stated, were Punctuality, Productivity, and Workforce Size, saying, “HR Managers have allowed mushrooming of numbers in both the Civil and Public Service. When I was the Chairman of the Free Zones Authority, we had only 70 employees, but now I am told the workforce is over 300. I ran NCA with about 98 staff. Today, I am told it has ballooned to 300 employees. We are just adding up numbers instead of downsizing.”

Mr. Iddrisu, therefore, tasked the CIHRM Council to pay particular attention to these concerns and come up with a manpower roadmap for the categories of staff needed in governmental agencies.

The Minister, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, conveyed hearty congratulations to the new CIHRM Council Members and wished them well in the task ahead.

In brief remarks, the President of CIHRM, Florence Hutchful, on behalf of the new Council and the entire membership of the Institute, thanked the Minister for making time out of his busy schedule to inaugurate the Council.

She emphasised the importance of the Ministry, saying, “Education remains the cornerstone of national development, and the Institute recognizes the critical role the Ministry of Education plays in shaping policies that impact the future of our country.”

She added that, as the only legally mandated HR Professional Body established by law to regulate the practice of human resource management and maintain HR Standards in Ghana, CIHRM was committed to equipping HR professionals with the requisite competencies and character qualities to support the building of a productive workforce and healthy organizations to contribute to development and growth of the Ghanaian economy.

She also accepted the Minister’s challenge to the Institute to address the concerns related to productivity, punctuality, and the ideal numbers of persons required in the Civil and Public Service.

The CEO of CIHRM, Dr. Francis Eduku, took the opportunity to formally invite the Minister as the Keynote Speaker of the Institute’s upcoming 2025 HR Conference, scheduled to take place from 18th to 19th June, 2025, at Alisa Hotel, North Ridge, Accra.