The Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) currently operates in only 66 of Ghana’s 261 districts, with inadequate personnel and equipment limiting its ability to effectively combat drug trafficking, according to government.
The development has renewed calls for increased investment in the Commission’s human resources and operational capacity as drug trafficking networks become increasingly sophisticated.
Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Peter Lanchene Toobu, said NACOC needed more personnel who were properly trained and strategically deployed to strengthen the country’s response to the drug trade.
“The total strength of NACOC is not up to 2,000. And I think that we should do better,” the Wa West MP said on Citi News Digest on Saturday, September 19, 2026.
Mr Toobu said expanding the Commission’s workforce should go hand in hand with investment in technology and equipment, as well as closer cooperation among security agencies.
“It’s no longer a joking matter. We are being stressed. Police are involved. BNI is involved. NACOC is playing the lead role. But they don’t have the numbers,” he said.
His comments follow the seizure in France of 3.9 tonnes of suspected cocaine from a container shipped from Ghana, an incident that has intensified attention on the country’s capacity to detect and disrupt international drug trafficking operations.
Mr Toobu urged the government to provide NACOC with the resources required to expand its operations and improve collaboration among security agencies.
“Let’s support them to have enough numbers. And let’s train them to be more effective. And let’s cooperate and collaborate as security agencies to get this task done,” he said.
In July, Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak told Parliament that NACOC’s operations covered only 66 of Ghana’s 261 districts because of personnel and equipment constraints.
Government indicated that it planned to expand NACOC’s presence nationwide over the following five to six years.
NACOC, meanwhile, has maintained that its recent enforcement operations have been intelligence-led. The Commission disclosed on Saturday that suspects linked to the 3.9-tonne cocaine shipment seized in France had been under surveillance for between one and two years before their arrest.
