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Claim: A viral video slideshow claimed that Ghana’s president, John Mahama, has announced that all public universities in Ghana will now be tuition-free.
Verdict: False! The president made no such promise or announcement. What the president announced and documented in the party’s manifesto is for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to be enrolled in public tertiary institutions. Additionally, the policy covers only the academic facility user fees for first-year students at public tertiary institutions.
Full Text
A video slideshow accompanied by voice narration is circulating on social media, claiming that John Mahama, Ghana’s president, has made tertiary education free for all Ghanaians. The video has been widely shared on Facebook and other platforms.
Portions of the video’s narration said, “All public universities in Ghana will now be tuition-free.”
The video went on to say that no brilliant mind would be left behind in Ghana’s education system because the president had declared that the country would use oil proceeds to fund the programme.
The claim has attracted considerable public interest, given ongoing national conversations around educational access and affordability in Ghana. @info_pulse2, a TikTok page, uploaded the video (archived here) on August 22, 2025, and it garnered 4,208 likes, 285 comments, and 2,035 reshares. As of June 8, 2026, 519 TikTok users bookmarked the video.
It is not the first time the video has gained virality. In 2025, several Facebook users shared the exact video here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Another TikTok user, @queenofreggae, made the same claim (archived here) on August 23, 2025, but only posted Mahama’s image. As of June 8, 2026, the post gained 4,121 likes, 98 comments, 565 reshares, and 433 bookmarks.
In @info_pulse’s video, a TikTok user, @Julius57, who believed its contents, said he loved the policy.
“Ibrahim Traore started that. What I don’t understand is why they keep putting the face of the previous president of Ghana, Akufo-Addo, when he had nothing to do with this.”
Another user, @samiyoung, wrote, “Well done, Osagefo JM. You have made me proud. You really inherited Dr Kwame Nkrumah. If you go on like this, your name will never be forgotten in the history of Ghana.”
But other users called out the post for inaccuracy.
In response to Gozo Nation’s Facebook post, Amoako Frimpong asked that the video’s details be verified. He wrote, “This reporter should come to Ghana and verify the reality of this.” Another user, Issifu Trawule, challenged the truth in the statements made in the video. He wrote, “Where did he say that education at the university is free? It is never true.”
The contrasting opinions the claim generated, its virality, and the implications for the Mahama-led administration’s reputation prompted DUBAWA to fact-check it.
Verification
Keyword search conducted by DUBAWA revealed that the Mahama-led administration launched a “No Fees Stress” policy on July 4, 2025, in Koforidua, Eastern Region. Under the programme, the state, acting through the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), committed to covering the academic facility user fees of all first-year students enrolled in public tertiary institutions, beginning with the 2025 academic year.
The launch was in fulfilment of an earlier announcement made during a national address in May 2025, delivered after 120 days in office. At that address, the President disclosed that GH¢452,940,012.00 had been allocated to cover academic facility user fees for 156,294 first-year students nationwide for the 2025 academic year.
Eligible students were required to apply for the first-year fee relief through the SLTF portal. The SLTF is responsible for pre-auditing applicants, verifying their Ghana Card details, and disbursing funds either as direct payments to universities or as reimbursements to qualifying students.
Mr Mahama also announced free tertiary education for persons with disabilities (PWDs), making full tuition coverage available to this group across public tertiary institutions.
Contrary to what the viral video suggests, the policy does not make tertiary education entirely free for all students. Coverage is limited to first-year students’ academic facility user fees for one academic year and to persons with disabilities.
The SLTF’s chief executive officer (CEO), Saajida Shiraz, also provides more information about the policy, the schools it covers, and the types of beneficiaries in an interview. She revealed that only first-year students are beneficiaries, not all students.
Conclusion
The Mahama-led administration has not made tuition at all public universities free for every student. The initiative covers only academic facility user fees for first-year students in the 2025 academic year, while full tuition coverage applies exclusively to persons with disabilities enrolled in public tertiary institutions. Therefore, the claim is inaccurate and misleading.
This report was produced under the 2026 Kwame Karikari Fact-checking and OSINT Fellowship, co-hosted by DUBAWA and the Digital Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Disorder Analysis Centre (DAIDAC), with support from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
