Nearly seven out of every ten Ghanaians faced demands for unofficial payments from public officials in late 2025, according to the latest Governance Series report released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
The findings reveal that while Ghana’s overall governance indicators improved compared to 2024, citizens’ direct encounters with bribery worsened sharply between July and December 2025.
Rising Pressure at Service Counters
Presenting the data at a Governance Series event organised by Three Reports and the GSS, Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu said demands for extra payments by officials rose significantly in the second half of the year.
He noted that the proportion of citizens reporting such demands increased from 51 percent in the first half of 2025 to 69 percent in the latter half.
“So the pressure sits at the counter. The problem now is less what citizens offer and more of what officials would ask,” Dr Iddrisu explained.
Bribe Payments Also Increased
The survey further showed that the share of Ghanaians who actually paid bribes rose from 14.3 percent in the first half of 2025 to 18 percent in the second half — meaning about one in six citizens paid to access public services.
Governance Indicators Still Positive
Despite the troubling bribery trend, Dr Iddrisu stressed that Ghana’s broader governance performance improved in 2025 compared to the previous year.
“The full year, which is 2025, got better compared to 2024. Both of these stories are true, and that’s the beauty of the six‑monthly survey that we do, to be able to look at trends within waves and even compare between years,” he said.
Methodology and Scope
The Governance Series tracks the same nationally representative households across all 16 regions, allowing the GSS to measure real changes in citizens’ experiences rather than variations caused by shifting survey samples.
The latest findings are based on interviews conducted in the first quarter of 2026, covering experiences between July and December 2025.
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