Claim: Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Peter Boamah Otokunor, claims that the Akufo-Addo-led government has so far accrued GHC 500 billion in revenue whereas the erstwhile John Mahama administration made GHC 200 billion.
DUBAWA has analyzed data from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana and have found the figures to be inaccurate.
Full Text
Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Peter Boamah Otokunor, has accused the ruling New Patriotic Party of having “nothing to show” despite accruing “a total GHC 500 billion in revenues.”
He says that the NPP, under the leadership of President Nana Akufo-Addo has offered “very poor and incompetent leadership” to Ghanaians.
Making comparisons, he said that the total revenue garnered by the government during the erstwhile John Mahama administration was a “meager GHC 200 billion.”
Peter Boamah Otokunor made the claim when he was delivering a solidarity message on behalf of the National Democratic Congress at the National Delegates Conference of the NPP in Accra on Saturday, July, 16, 2022.
“The NPP government has been privileged to benefit from a total GHC 500 billion Ghana Cedis in revenues and about GHC 400 billion in borrowed inflows, compared to some meagre GHC 200 billion accrued to your predecessor, the Nation Builder, H.E John Dramani Mahama, yet you have nothing to show. Absolutely nothing,” he said at the Conference which was broadcast live across the country on several major media platforms.
Subsequently, he shared a short clip that captured the claim on his Twitter page.
The 2 minutes, 19 seconds video has since attracted 34.4K views.
The former Presidential staffer also shared his full speech at the Conference on his Facebook page. The claim can be found in the sixth paragraph of the text.
Verification
Government revenue refers to the total amount of money that is generated from various sources, such as taxes, social contributions, grants receivable, and interest on investments made by the government.
In investigating the claim, DUBAWA relied on economic data from the Bank of Ghana and budget statements from the Ministry of Finance from 2014 to 2022.
According to figures from the Bank of Ghana between 2013 and 2016, which was the period within which John Mahama was President, the government had accrued a total of GHC 108,983.46 million.
This is slightly different from the budget statements for the period of John Mahama’s administration.
With the exception of 2016, documents sighted by DUBAWA only gave the government’s projected revenue for 2013, 2014, and 2015.
Regardless, if these figures are summed, the government’s revenue from 2013 to 2016 was GHC 111,407.60 million.
These figures are below the GHC 200 billion quoted by Peter Boamah Otokunor as the government’s accrued revenue during the tenure of John Mahama as President.
Below is a breakdown of the government’s revenue based on data from the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning from 2013 to 2016.
| Year | Bank of Ghana (GHC’M) | MOFEP (GHC’M) |
| 2013 | 19,471.55 | 20,801.0 (projected outturn) – 2014 budget (Pg. 28) |
| 2014 | 24,745.46 | 24,739.2 (projected outturn) – 2015 budget (Pg. 21) |
| 2015 | 31,088.28 | 32,189.2 (projected outturn) – 2016 budget (Pg. 22) |
| 2016 | 33,678.17 | 33,678.2 (Provisional outturn) – 2017 Prov. budget, Pg. 19) |
| Total | 108,983.46 | 111,407.60 |
Similarly, data from the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance do not back the claim that the current government, led by President Nana Akufo-Addo, has so far accrued GHC 500 billion in revenues.
Below is a breakdown of the government’s revenue based on data from the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning from 2017 to 2021.
| Year | BoG (GHC’M) | MOFEP (GHC) |
| 2017 | 40,277.70 | 41,254,261,237 (Projected outlook – 2018 budget, Appendix 2A) |
| 2018 | 47,636.73 | 46,807,862,869 (Projected outturn – 2019 budget, Appendix 2B) |
| 2019 | 53,379.61 | 53,379,610,097 (Provisional outturn – 2020 budget, Appendix 2B) |
| 2020 | 55,132.25 | 55,128,435,325 (Provisional outturn – 2020 budget, Appendix 2B) |
| 2021 | N/A | 70,347,458,170 (Project outturn – 2022 budget, Appendix 2B) |
| Total | 196,426.29 | 266,917,627,698 |
Given the huge disparity between the figures provided by Peter Boamah Otokunor and data gathered by DUBAWA, an attempt was made to get the Deputy General Secretary to provide his source of data but to no avail. This report will be updated with his response when received.
Conclusion
On the basis of data from the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance, DUBAWA has found that the figures quoted by Peter Boamah Otokunor are inaccurate.
