It has now become a trend for international organisations, government bodies and academic institutions to organise workshops and seminars on chieftaincy and 'capacity building’, often in collaboration with chiefs. ‘Capacity-building’ has become a buzzword, despite the difficulties in evidencing or measuring the impact of capacity-building initiatives. This paper asks how and why different actors and interests converge behind the agenda of ‘building the capacity’ of chiefs? What does this capacity-building entail? Does it aim to bureaucratise the institution of chieftaincy? Or to professionalise the chiefs? What are the newly enhanced ‘traditional authorities’ expected to do differently or better? Drawing on examples such as the Otumfuo Centre for Traditional Leadership at the University of Professional Studies in Accra, Ghana, the paper will explore how chiefs are domesticating international discourses in support of their ‘customary’ roles as managers and leaders of development.