Mr. John Yao Agbeko
Chief Director
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture,
Republic of Ghana
Mr. John Yaw Agbeko is the Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC). He worked as the Acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture from 2nd April, 2020 to 9th March, 2021, as the bureaucratic Head of the Ministry and the Chief Advisor to the Political Head.
His leadership position mandates him to offer guidance for the determination of policy objectives within the sector and their subsequent implementation, providing expertise to ensure the judicious utilization of all the resources of the sector alongside coordinating work programs, rules, guidelines, and procedures to help facilitate the achievement of set targets of the Ministry. Key among his functions as the Chief Director include safeguarding an effective organization and development of training programs consistent with the policies and programs of the Sector, establish systems for effective inter-ministerial collaboration and co-operation to avoid duplication and to achieve harmonization of programs, develop systems of effective work-flow and feedback on the activities within the Sector and also provide channels for effective information flow within the sector.
Before he rose to the Chief Director position, Mr. Agbeko was the Director, RTDD, Office of the Head of Civil Service from 23rd August, 2018 to 1st April 2020 where he Initiated the formulation, review, and implementation of Human Resource related policies, guidelines, standards and programs for the Service. Aside his role in Monitoring and coordination of HRM activities of MDAs in the area of Recruitment, to ensure commitment to fairness and uniformity in the application of rules, he also facilitated strategic service-wide training programs for the Civil Service with oversight responsibility in the management of the Civil Service Training Institutions.
From 7th January, 2013 to 25th June 2018, Mr. Agbeko worked at Births and Deaths as the Acting Registrar and Head of Department where he provided expertise on the day-to-day management of the Department for effective and efficient planning and implementation of policies and strategies. He also provided technical guidance and interpretation of rules and regulations to enhance service delivery, monitored and coordinated the proper financial administration of the Registry among other important financial management functions to ensure judicious use of resources.
At the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, (MOFA) Mr. Agbeko functioned as the Director of Administration from 2nd January, 2012 to 4th January, 2013, coordinating activities between the Ministry and its Departments, supervise preparation and implementation of the Ministry’s Budget, followed-up on matters raised by the Auditor General in the form of audit queries, organize weekly meetings of National Directors and also Supervised the organization of all National Events by the Ministry.
As Deputy Director of the Registrar General’s Department from 1st January, 2007 to 31st December 2011, Mr. John Yaw Agbeko managed the general day to day activity of the Department, coordinated the Implementation of the Registrar General’s Department’s reform Program, planned and directed the preparation and implementation of the Department’s Annual Budget Estimates. As a good planner, he planned, Monitored, and ensured adequate Human Resource development and deployment for efficient execution of the Department’s mandate to ensure its Non-Tax Revenue is properly Managed as laid down in the Financial Administration Act 2003 Act 654 and the Financial Administration Regulation 2004 (L.I. 1802) and plotted the execution of the Department’s Procurement program as prescribed by the Procurement Act 2003 Act 663. At the Scholarship Secretariat where he worked as Assistant Director 1 from 1st January 2002 to September 2003 carrying out similar functions including the Coordination, preparation and implementation of the Secretariat’s Budget, ensure the day to day running of the office, safeguard efficient maintenance of the office building and running of the transport unit were some of his key job functions. At the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts as an Assistant Director 2A and 2B respectively from 1st August 1998 to 31st December, 2001. Mr. Agbeko was the Headmaster of F’eden Mission Preparatory School/JSS in October 1992 to August,1994 and rose to an Assistant Examiner of the West African Examination Council from June 1994 to September 2003 with a specialty in French and later became a Teaching Assistant at the University of Ghana Lagon later was attached to the Ghana Military Academy as French Instructor from November 1991 to July 1992.
He started his basic and secondary school education at Hohoe E. P basic and Secondary School, after which he proceeded to do his General Certificate Examination Ordinary Level Certificate in June 1983 and continued immediately with his GCE Advanced Level Certificate in June 1985 at Bishop Herman Secondary School at Kpando in the Volta Region. From 1987-1991 he graduated with a B. A. (Hons.) in French and Linguistics at the University of Ghana Legon and continued to Ouagadougou Burkina Faso in 1990 where he pursued a One-year proficiency course in French Language.
He later veered into public administration pursuing a post-graduate Certificate and Diploma in Public Administration in October 1998 to July 2000 where he read courses ranging from System, Organizational Behavior, Public Finance, Public Policy Making, Ethics in Administration, Policy Analysis and Public Enterprise Management & Privatization at the Ghana Institute of Public Administration Accra, Ghana. In his quest to enhance his knowledge, he got his MBA in Advanced Management, Management Information Systems, Marketing Management, Human Resource Management, Strategic Management, Managerial Economics, Financial Management, Project Management, E-commerce, Internet Marketing, Business Communication, Organizational Behavior and more in June 2006 at the Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China.
Mr. Agbeko has also participated in numerous international conferences starting from 24th to 29th March 2019, in Sheffield University Management School in the UK to participate in the partnership building for Strengthening Accountability in the Civil Service and was also an active participant at the Chartered Institute of Administrators and Management Consultants conference held in Accra on 23rd July 2019 for management practitioners and other management and leadership training programs both locally and internationally. Mr. John Yao Agbeko is a Ghanaian multilingual family man whose roots could be traced from Hohoe in the Volta Region.