As official graft continues to make headlines, a majority of Ghanaians say corruption in the country increased over the past year, the latest Afrobarometer findings reveal.
Among key public officials, the police, the Presidency, tax officials, and members of Parliament (MPs) are most widely perceived as corrupt. Furthermore, the data reveal a decline in public confidence to report corruption without fear of retaliation, with only one-fourth of citizens feeling safe to do so.
Ghanaians’ assessments of government efforts to fight corruption remain overwhelmingly negative.
This week, Ghana’s Office of the Special Prosecutor declared former Finance Minister Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta a fugitive in connection with multiple ongoing investigations into alleged corruption and related offences.
Key findings
- Three-fourths (74%) of Ghanaians say the level of corruption in the country increased over the past year, including 63% who think it rose “a lot.” Perceptions of increasing corruption declined by a modest 3 percentage points compared to 2022 (77%) after more than doubling between 2017 and 2022 (Figure 1). Only 7% say the level of corruption decreased.
- Almost two-thirds (63%) of citizens say “most” or “all” police officials are corrupt, while more than half see widespread corruption at the Presidency (54%) and among tax officials (53%) and MPs (51%) (Figure 2).
- Only about a quarter (26%) of Ghanaians believe that people can report corruption without fear of retaliation, a decline of 4 percentage points compared to 2022 (Figure 3). Seven in 10 (71%) say people risk retaliation or other negative consequences if they report incidents of corruption to the authorities.
- An overwhelming majority (82%) of Ghanaians say the government is doing “fairly badly” or “very badly” at righting corruption in government (Figure 4).
- Since 2017, dissatisfaction with the government’s anti-corruption efforts has increased by 49 percentage points.
Afrobarometer surveys
Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Nine survey rounds in up to 42 countries have been completed since 1999. Round 10 were launched in January 2024. Afrobarometer’s national partners conduct face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice.
The Afrobarometer team in Ghana, led by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, interviewed a nationally representative sample of 2,400 adult Ghanaians in August 2024. A sample of this size yields country-level results with a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Previous surveys were conducted in Ghana in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2022.
