<p><span>Promises, Power, And Proof: Ghana's 2024 Election Pledges and the Governance Reality of 2025–2026</span></p>
Benjamin Makafui Jackson
Source abstract
This article examines the promises made by John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ahead of Ghana's 7 December 2024 general election and tests those promises against the documented record of governance between the administration's inauguration on 7 January 2025 and August 2026. It draws on independent fact-checking projects (notably GhanaFact's Promise Meter), IMF Article IV and Extended Credit Facility (ECF) reviews, Bank of Ghana and Ghana Statistical Service data, parliamentary budget statements, and on-the-record reactions from organised labour (TUC), business associations (AGI, Chamber of Commerce, ACCI), farmer and cooperative bodies (PFAG, GCCFA), and independent policy analysts. The analysis finds a genuinely mixed record: real and independently verifiable macroeconomic stabilisation (falling inflation, a rebuilt cedi, a primary fiscal surplus, and an upgraded debt-distress rating) sits alongside slower, partial, or contested delivery on flagship social and structural promises-the 24-Hour Economy, free first-year tertiary fees, agricultural revival, and anti-galamsey enforcement. It also interrogates a structural feature of Ghanaian (and broader West African) electoral politics: the tendency for manifesto commitments to be produced as persuasive political instruments rather than as costed, evidence-based policy proposals, and the consequences this has for accountability, fiscal planning, and public trust. The article does not take a partisan position on the government's performance. It sets out the evidence, presents the range of expert and stakeholder views, and identifies open questions that citizens, journalists, legislators, and researchers should continue to probe.
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