By: Bernard Bempong, CA
Ghana’s Approval Culture and Corporate Delays
“In some companies, documents travel more than tourists.”
Somewhere in Ghana right now, a finance officer is staring at a payment request that has been:
- printed,
- signed,
- scanned,
- reprinted,
- stapled,
- reviewed,
- and emotionally exhausted.
Yet the payment still cannot move.
Why?
Because one final signature is missing.
And the person who must sign it is:
- “in a meeting,”
- “stepped out briefly,”
- “traveling,”
- “at lunch,”
- or “will review tomorrow.”
Welcome to one of the most expensive silent problems in many organizations:
Approval culture.
The Signature Has More Power Than the Strategy
Many businesses proudly discuss:
- growth plans,
- innovation,
- digital transformation,
- and operational excellence.
But behind the PowerPoint slides is a terrifying reality:
Nothing moves without signatures.
Sometimes even small operational decisions require:
- four managers,
- two directors,
- one committee,
- and divine intervention.
A procurement request for basic office supplies can travel through so many desks that the printer runs out of toner before approval arrives.
At that point, the process itself becomes satire.
Delay Slowly Becomes Company Culture
The dangerous thing about approval bottlenecks is that organizations eventually normalize them.
Employees stop expecting speed.
Vendors stop expecting timelines.
Customers stop expecting responsiveness.
Everyone quietly adapts to delay.
People begin using phrases like:
- “We are following up,”
- “Management is reviewing,”
- “The file is somewhere,”
- and the legendary:
“We are waiting for approval.”
That sentence alone has delayed enough business activity to create its own GDP category.
Fear-Based Management Creates Slow Organizations
In many organizations, delays are not caused by laziness alone.
They are caused by fear.
Managers become afraid to:
- make decisions,
- approve spending,
- delegate authority,
- or take responsibility.
So everything gets escalated upward.
Even minor decisions.
Because in some corporate cultures:
making no decision feels safer than making the wrong decision.
The result?
Senior executives become human traffic lights controlling every operational movement.
Eventually:
- procurement slows,
- vendors become frustrated,
- employees become disengaged,
- and execution collapses under unnecessary hierarchy.
Procurement Delays Quietly Destroy Operations
Many businesses underestimate how expensive slow approvals become.
A delayed procurement process can affect:
- inventory availability,
- maintenance schedules,
- production timelines,
- customer service,
- and revenue generation.
Imagine:
- equipment waiting for replacement parts,
- projects delayed over small approvals,
- or vendors refusing future work because payments always arrive late.
These problems may appear administrative.
But financially, they become operational leakage.
Sometimes companies do not have cash flow problems.
They have approval speed problems.
Vendors Eventually Lose Patience
Suppliers and vendors may tolerate delays initially.
But over time, repeated approval bottlenecks damage relationships.
Vendors begin:
- increasing prices,
- demanding upfront payment,
- delaying deliveries,
- or quietly prioritizing faster-paying clients.
Trust erodes.
And once vendors lose confidence in a company’s responsiveness, operational efficiency suffers even further.
Because the market remembers slow payers.
Very well.
The File Is Traveling More Than the Employees
One of the funniest things in some organizations is watching how far documents travel physically.
A single approval form may visit:
- administration,
- procurement,
- finance,
- internal audit,
- legal,
- operations,
- senior management,
- and back again.
By the end of the process, the paper itself deserves transport allowance.
Meanwhile the actual business need remains unresolved.
This is how organizations accidentally create bureaucratic obstacle courses while believing they are improving control.
Governance Is Important — But So Is Speed
Strong controls matter.
Approvals matter.
Governance matters.
No serious business should operate without accountability.
But excessive bureaucracy can become its own form of inefficiency.
The strongest organizations balance:
- control,
- speed,
- accountability,
- delegation,
- and operational trust.
Because if every decision requires executive involvement, leadership eventually becomes the bottleneck.
And no company scales efficiently that way.
Smart Businesses Redesign Processes
Modern organizations increasingly improve efficiency through:
- delegated approval limits,
- digital workflows,
- ERP systems,
- automated procurement processes,
- workflow tracking,
- and clear authority structures.
Because speed matters.
Especially in competitive markets.
Businesses that execute faster often outperform businesses that simply hold more meetings.
Execution speed is now a competitive advantage.
Ghanaian Businesses Are Capable of Moving Fast
Despite the jokes, many Ghanaian companies are becoming increasingly sophisticated operationally.
Organizations are:
- modernizing systems,
- redesigning processes,
- decentralizing authority,
- and improving governance structures.
That evolution is important.
Because Ghana’s private sector has enormous potential when operational efficiency improves alongside business growth.
Final Thought
Delays do not always look dramatic.
Sometimes they appear as:
- pending signatures,
- waiting approvals,
- unanswered emails,
- and files sitting quietly on desks.
But over time, small delays create:
- lost revenue,
- frustrated vendors,
- slow execution,
- exhausted employees,
- and reduced competitiveness.
In business, speed matters.
And in some organizations…
the finance department is still waiting for one signature from last Tuesday.
Author: Bernard Bempong is a Chartered Accountant and business advisory leader with over 14 years of experience in audit, taxation, financial management, operational strategy, and business advisory services. As Managing Director of JS Morlu Ghana, he advises organizations on operational efficiency, governance, risk management, and sustainable business growth across multiple industries.