President John Dramani Mahama has approved a reorganisation of the National Security Council Secretariat, appointing former Chief of Army Staff Major General (Rtd.) William Ayamdo as Deputy National Security Coordinator in charge of Operations.

The changes, announced by Presidential Spokesperson and Minister for Government Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu, take immediate effect.

Major General Ayamdo, who retired from the Ghana Armed Forces in 2020, brings extensive military and intelligence experience to the new role.

He previously served as Director General of Defence Intelligence and headed the Counter Terrorism Unit under the National Security Council Secretariat.

Yaw Donkor reassigned

As part of the reorganisation, former National Security Coordinator Yaw Donkor has been reassigned to the Office of the National Security Advisor as Director of Intelligence and Research.

Mr Donkor served as National Security Coordinator during President Mahama’s first administration from 2014 to 2017.

Other appointments announced as part of the changes include Adamu Saaka as Director of Logistics and Transport and Faustina Effah-Boadi as Officer in Charge of the Human Security Department.

DCOP (Rtd.) Peter Ndekugri has also been appointed Officer in Charge of the Special Investigations Unit.

Meanwhile, ACP Alhassan Osman has been reassigned to the Ghana Police Service for further deployment, ending his current assignment at the National Security Council Secretariat.

The reorganisation comes as the Mahama administration seeks to realign Ghana’s national security architecture.

President Mahama had earlier appointed former Chief of Staff Prosper Douglas Bani as National Security Advisor, while DCOP Abdul-Osman Razak serves as National Security Coordinator.

Parliament has also passed the Security and Intelligence Agencies Bill, 2025, which introduces reforms to Ghana’s security and intelligence architecture, including the renaming of the National Investigations Bureau as the Bureau of National Intelligence.

The latest changes come against the backdrop of wider discussions about the structure and legal basis of Ghana’s national security institutions.

The National Security Council Secretariat has faced constitutional scrutiny, with some analysts questioning its status and arguing that the 1992 Constitution does not expressly provide for a permanent bureaucratic secretariat separate from the constitutionally recognised security and intelligence agencies.

The latest appointments are expected to strengthen operational coordination, intelligence gathering and specialised security functions within the national security architecture.