Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, has intensified pressure on the government over what he describes as shifting figures, inflated prices and inconsistent explanations surrounding the cost of sanitary pads captured in the national budget.
Addressing the press in Parliament on Wednesday, the outspoken MP said the Minority is forced to respond after the Minister of Education and his deputy attempted to defend the indefensible following his earlier revelations on the floor. According to him, the Minority’s concerns are grounded entirely in the government’s own numbers, stressing that every figure cited originates from the 2025 budget, the 2026 budget review and the Ministry of Finance’s official publications.
Assafuah noted that government documents indicated an allocation of GH¢292.4 million for sanitary pads, targeting 1.3 million girls, with 6.6 million pads reported as distributed.
Using these same figures, he argued that the implied cost per pack is GH¢44—nearly three times the GH¢15 market price publicly acknowledged by the Finance Ministry. This, he said, raises serious value-for-money concerns, questioning why government would pay significantly more than ordinary Ghanaian families do for the same product.
He further pointed out that the Deputy Minister for Education, Clement Apaak, later presented an entirely different set of figures that do not appear anywhere in the budget. “The deputy minister’s account suggested procurement in two phases—0.6 million pads initially and another 5.6 million later—bringing the total to 12.2 million pads, with unit prices said to fall between GH¢19 and GH¢24.” Assafuah argued that even if these new figures are used, the cost still computes to about GH¢24 per pack, which he insisted remains unjustifiable based on the government’s own numbers.
The MP revealed that a local manufacturer submitted a tender quoting GH¢20 per pack but was not shortlisted or given the opportunity to supply. He described this as a deliberate sidelining of Ghanaian producers and questioned why bulk purchasing—which ordinarily reduces cost—has instead resulted in inflated unit prices. If a consumer can buy a pack for GH¢15 in a supermarket, he argued, there is no justification for government paying more when purchasing 12.2 million units.
Assafuah maintained that economies of scale alone should have brought the price down to as low as GH¢10 per pack, which would have placed the entire procurement at about GH¢122 million. He said this leaves a staggering GH¢170 million unaccounted for, asking pointedly where that money went and describing the situation as “chobo governance.”
He also highlighted contradictions in the government’s own reporting. While the deputy minister claims that millions of pads remain undistributed, the same GH¢292.4 million allocation appears unchanged in both the 2025 and 2026 budgets. Assafuah questioned how government could return to Parliament seeking another full allocation when the first has not been properly accounted for, raising the spectre of double contracting, double budgeting and possible wastage.
The MP expressed frustration over the Education Ministry’s ongoing refusal to release procurement documents despite months of formal requests. He said the lack of transparency deepens public suspicion, especially when beneficiary numbers do not reconcile and the government’s explanations continue to shift.
According to him, comparing the original budget, the budget review and the deputy minister’s fresh explanation reveals three different accounts of the same expenditure, none of which align with each other. “Three different stories cannot all be true. Ghanaians deserve to know which one is real,” he insisted.
Assafuah reaffirmed that the Minority stands with millions of Ghanaians demanding clarity and accountability, emphasizing that the issue goes beyond politics and strikes at the heart of value-for-money considerations and safeguarding the taxpayer.
