Claim: Communication Team Member of the National Democratic Congress, Margaret Ansei, says that Ghana’s inflation rate at the time John Mahama exited office in 2016 was 11%.

Verdict: This is false. Official data from the Ghana Statistical Service indicates that the rate was higher when John Mahama exited office in 2016.
Full Text
Former President John Mahama has begun taking steps to permit him to contest in the 2024 Presidential elections on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). A team picked nomination forms on his behalf to contest in the party’s forthcoming flagbearship race on Wednesday, February 22, 2023.
A significant section of his party has welcomed the idea of the former President leading the NDC to challenge Ghana’s presidential office. One such member clamouring for the return of John Mahama is Margaret Ansei, a member of the party’s communications team.
According to the former Suhum Municipal Chief Executive, “the current situation of the economy [which is] being destroyed beyond measure” calls for the leadership of John Mahama.
“[We need] someone who has been a President before. We need someone who can announce his cabinet immediately after swearing in, not someone who will do trial and error. President Mahama left this country at an inflation rate [of] 11 per cent… Today, there is hyperinflation,” she said on Breakfast Review on GHOne Television.
The show was live-streamed on the Facebook page of the TV Station, and her statement can be found between minutes 51:55 to 52:33.
Verification
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “Inflation measures how much more expensive a set of goods and services has become over a certain period, usually a year.”
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) are two leading institutions that can be relied on for the monthly publication of the inflation situation in the country.
Although the erstwhile John Mahama-led NDC administration exited office in January 2017, December 2016 is considered their last month in office, understandably so because it was the last full month they entirely steered the country’s affairs before their exit.
The GSS and the BoG all quote 15.40% as the inflation rate for December 2016. This is high above the 11% quoted by the National Women Organizer aspirant in the party’s 2022 National elections.
“The year-on-year inflation rate as measured by the CPI stood at 15.4 per cent in December 2016. It was down by 0.1 percentage point from the 15.5 per cent recorded in November 2016.
“This inflation rate for December 2016 is the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the twelve months, from December 2015 to December 2016,” the Ghana Statistical Service said in its December 2016 Consumer Price Index report.
Conclusion
Ghana’s inflation rate, at the time John Mahama was exiting office as President in 2016, was not 11%, as claimed by Margaret Ansei. The inflation rate as of December 2016 was 15.40%, according to data from the Ghana Statistical Service and the Bank of Ghana.