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Claim: Dennis Miracles Aboagye claims that Ghana’s real economic sectors are not progressing, citing the national budget as his evidence.
Verdict: This claim is misleading. An analysis of the 2026 budget indicates that both the agriculture and service sectors saw progress compared to the same period in 2024, except the industry, which saw a marginal decline.
Full Text
Dennis ‘Miracles’ Aboagye, a senior aide to former Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, has asserted that the country is not experiencing growth in its real economic sectors.
While acknowledging the current government’s successes in producing “unprecedented” macroeconomic performances within its first year, he questioned its sustainability and opined that it was solely driven by “high international market price for gold.”
“One single thing is what has driven us to where we are now: a high international market price for gold. The question we have to ask the government is, should gold drop to $2,000, can we survive?” Aboagye queried.
Despite projections that gold prices will continue to rise, Dennis Aboagye said unexpected global events, such as the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing US-Israel war with Iran, validate his concerns about the sustainability of the government’s economic gains.
To further justify his concerns, he claimed that none of the real sectors of the economy were progressing.
“Go and pick their budget. Look at all the real sectors of the economy; none of them is progressing. This is not personal, it is just economics,” he said on Newsfile on Saturday, February 28.
A clip that captures the claim has been published on Facebook and can be seen here (minutes 5:57 – 6:09).
Is it true that Ghana’s real economic sectors are not progressing?
DUBAWA decided to fact-check the claim in line with our mandate to combat misinformation and to promote truth in public discourse.
Verification
Since Mr Aboagye referenced the government’s budget document to back his claim, that was our first point of reference to verify it.
The 2026 Budget provides details on Ghana’s real sector performance in the first half of 2025 (lines 58-69, pages 11-13).
“The services sector remained the primary engine of growth, expanding by 8.8 per cent in the first half of 2025, compared to 3.2 per cent in the same period of 2024. Agriculture also delivered a robust performance, growing by 6.0 per cent in the first half of 2025, compared to 2.9 per cent a year earlier. Growth in the industry sector, though moderated to 3.2 per cent due to lower oil output, remains encouraging,” the Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, reported to Parliament.
Source: Ministry of Finance 2026 Budget (Page 13)
The chart shows that the Services and Agriculture sectors performed better in the first half of 2025 than in the same period in 2024. This is not the same for the Industry sector, which experienced a reduced growth in the first half of 2024.
Quarterly performance of real sectors
Data from the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Statistical Service can provide quarterly performance data on the country’s real sectors of the economy.
In the Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data released in November 2025, the figures show that the service sector grew by 9.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2025, compared with 7.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2025. The Agriculture and Industry sector slowed in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter.
Ghana Statistical Service estimates for Quarter 3 show that the agriculture sector grew by 8.6 per cent, the Industry sector slowed to 0.8 per cent, and the services sector grew by 7.6 per cent.
We relied on data from the Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data for November 2025 to assess real sector performance in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2. Quarter 3 figures were from the Ghana Statistical Service’s estimates released in December 2025.
Conclusion
It is misleading to suggest that none of the real sectors of the economy is progressing. At least for agriculture, the latest data show the sector grew by 8.6 per cent, compared with 5.2 per cent in the second quarter.
