Election 2024: Fact-checking election-related disinformation content [Day 2]

The Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition’s work in preserving information integrity before, during and after the 2024 general elections officially started on December 4, 2024.

Journalists and personnel of the three coalition partners – Fact-Check Ghana, Dubawa Ghana and GhanaFact – are operating from two Media Situation Rooms (MSR) in Accra and Tamale, working to combat mis and disinformation in the traditional media and on social media platforms.

Headlines:

• Mahama misspoke about the NDC government selling Ghana but later corrected himself
• Akufo-Addo, Dr Bawumia and Kennedy Agyapong’s claim that 5.7 million students have benefitted from Free SHS policy false
• False! – Mahama did not say he “may not sign” the anti-LGBTQ+ bill into law if elected
• Old Video of Sammy Gyamfi resurfaces
• False! Dollar equivalent of ₵559 NSS 2016 allowance, not $143.33
• WhatsApp post of GH¢500 campaign fund donation by Bawumia is a hoax accompanied by a phishing link.
• False! Ghana is not the 3rd most food-secure country in Africa
• True. NPP executives distributed money to teachers in Akwatia Constituency!
• Claim Mahama did not build a single university during his tenure, misleading!
• Dr. Bawumia’s claim confirmed: Ghana Ranks 2nd in Africa for Education quality Misleading!
• Mahama didn’t leave office with debt-to-GDP ratio at 56%, inflation at 15%, unemployment rate at 8%
• False! NDC’s Prof Opoku-Agyemang did not advocate for some SHSs to be reserved for the privileged

Below is a compilation of claims the team fact-checked on Day 2 of the MSR operations.

CLAIM 1

Headline: Mahama misspoke about the NDC government selling Ghana but later corrected himself

Claim: Multiple social media users shared a video with captions claiming NDC Flagbearer John Mahama during a rally in Daboase said the next NDC government will sell the country.

Source: Social Media (Facebook)

Verdict: Misleading 

Explanation:  The Ghana Fact-checking coalition found a longer version of the video in which the NDC candidate, John Mahama, misspoke when he stated that the next NDC government would sell the country but corrected his speech and said; “If the NPP is voted back into power, they will sell Ghana,” after Ellembele lawmaker, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah approached him over the slip. 

CLAIM 2

Headline: President Akufo-Addo, Dr Bawumia and Kennedy Agyapong’s claim that 5.7 million students have benefitted from Free SHS policy false 

Claim: Kennedy Agyapong has repeated the claim that 5.7 million people benefitted from Free SHS during the NPP’s final rally.

Source: TV monitoring of final rally

Verdict: False

Explanation: According to the Ministry of Finance, the total beneficiaries of the Free SHS policy from 2017 to 2024 are 3,135,754. This figure is 2,564,246 lower than the 5.7 million President Akufo-Addo, Dr Bawumia, and  NPP forerunner Kennedy Agyapong mentioned.

CLAIM 3

Claim: An X user, @Mayor38593709, shared a flyer in which John Mahama, the 2024 NDC flagbearer, reportedly said he “may not sign” the anti-LGBTQ+ bill into law if elected.

Source: X (Formerly Twitter) archived

Verdict: False

Explanation: The 2024 NDC flagbearer, John Mahama, did not make the alleged comment in his interview with the BBC. Ghana’s Parliament passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values on February 29, 2024; however, President Nana Akufo-Addo has declined assent to it, citing pending court action. Mr Mahama explained that LGBTQ+ practices are against Ghana’s “religious faith, Muslim and Christian.”

He explained that the President must review the bill, indicate “what he finds wrong” with it, and send it to Parliament or the Council of State for advice. Asked if he would ever sign an anti-LGBTQ+ bill, Mr Mahama said, “It depends on what is in [it].” He never said anywhere in the interview that he “may not sign” the pending LGBTQ+ bill. Also, the media outlet whose logo is featured on the flyer has denied creating it. 

CLAIM 4

Headline: Old Video of Sammy Gyamfi resurfaces

Claim: An animated video showing cloned images of Sammy Gyamfi, Johnson Asiedu Nketia and John Mahama with the voice of Sammy Gyamfi in the background is being circulated with the claim that the NDC threatens to deal with the security service personnel when the party comes to power. 

Source: Dauda bisiu Muntaka @DBisiu – X & TitTok 

Verdict: Misleading 

Explanation: Our checks found that Sammy Gyamfi made the statement in July 2020 at a press briefing to address matters arising from the voter registration exercise, including police brutality and violence that occurred at various registration centres. Even though he made the comment attributed to him, it is not related to the 2024 elections. 

NB: This claim was debunked in the past

CLAIM 5

Headline: False! Dollar equivalent of ₵559 NSS 2016 allowance, not $143.33

Claim: A flyer on social media alleges that the dollar equivalent of the National Service Scheme (NSS) allowance of ₵559 in 2016 and ₵715 in 2024 were $143.33 and $42.29, respectively.

Source: X user, @Candeed93 asked the Coalition to investigate

Verdict: False

Explanation: The Cedi traded at ₵4.275 to the dollar as of December 31, 2016, when the NSS monthly allowance was ₵559. Therefore, the dollar equivalent of ₵559 was $130.760 after dividing the monthly NSS allowance by ₵4.275, not the alleged $143.33. Also, the NSS allowance as of December 5, 2024, is ₵715 after it increased in July 2023. The Bank of Ghana’s exchange rate as of December 5, 2024, is $1 to  ₵14.9125. With the dollar trading at ₵14.9125, the dollar equivalent of ₵715 is $47.9463, not $42.29 as alleged. 

CLAIM 6

Headline: WhatsApp post of GH¢500 campaign fund donation by Bawumia is a hoax accompanied by a phishing link.

Claim: New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer Mahamudu Bawumia is giving out an instant cash prize from his campaign fund.Fig 1 – Screenshot of the viral WhatsApp message

Source: Social Media (WhatsApp)

Verdict: Hoax

Explanation: An initial attempt to access the link in the message triggered malware advice indicating that the site is malicious and access to it could be risky.

Fig 2 – Screenshot of the website safety warning after clicking the link

When the Coalition checked the website URL through the website credibility tool Virus Total, 10 security vendors flagged the URL as phishing, malware, and malicious.  Fig 3 – Virus Total analysis of the security threats posed by the phishing link

CLAIM 7

Headline: False! Ghana is not the 3rd most food-secure country in Africa

Claim: At the final rally of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on December 5, 2024, the flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said: “If you ranked the countries by food security, Ghana is number three in Africa in all the 54 countries.”

Verdict: False

Explanation: The Global Food Security Index which evaluates 113 countries based on the affordability, availability, quality, and safety of food, in its last report in 2022,  ranked Ghana 7th in Africa. Meanwhile, the country ranks 83rd globally with an overall score of 52.6. 

Therefore, the claim is false.

CLAIM 8

Headline: True. NPP executives distributed money to teachers in Akwatia Constituency!

Claim: An X user claims teachers in Demkyembour in the Akwatia Constituency were each given GH₵300 to vote for the NPP. 

Verdict: True

Explanation: The Ghana Fact-checking Coalition’s findings revealed that NPP executives in Denkyembour in the Akwatia Constituency of the Eastern Region gave money to teachers on Monday, December 2, 2024. A teacher confirmed receiving GH₵300 from the NPP executives in the area. “Your school’s name will be mentioned, and teachers present will go and receive the money,” a teacher told the Ghana Fact-checking Coalition. 

Claim 9 

Headline: Claim Mahama did not build a single university during his tenure, misleading!

Claim: A youth group on X, @nppsweepers promoting Dr Bawumia and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2024 elections has alleged that ex-President Dramani Mahama built no university during his tenure, in a post that has garnered over 80,000 views and 170 comments.

Source: @nppsweepers on X. (Archived here)

Verdict: Misleading

Explanation:
Checks by the Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition reveal that ex-President Mahama cut sod for the construction of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development in Somanya in December 2016. This was after Parliament had approved a £45-million commercial agreement between the government and Contracta Construction Limited, an Italian construction firm, for the construction of the university. 

The University was also established by the UESD Act 2015 (Act 898) during the tenure of President John Dramani Mahama. The University was completed and inaugurated by President Akufo-Addo on August 5, 2020.

Even though Mahama left office before the construction was completed, it is misleading to claim he never built a single University. Other fact-checking investigations have debunked similar claims, see here and here also here.

CLAIM 10

Headline:  Dr. Bawumia’s claim confirmed: Ghana Ranks 2nd in Africa for Education quality

Claim: The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, at the party’s final rally on December 5, 2024, claimed Ghana ranks second in Africa with the second highest quality of education as he praises the government’s free education policy. 

Source: NPP Campaign Rally

Verdict: True

Explanation:   In the June 2024,  Financing Africa Report by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Ghana ranked second in the top ten (10) African countries with quality education. In the report, Tunisia ranks first with a score of 93.1% followed by Ghana with 84.5%. The rest of the top ten are  Namibia, Mauritius, Togo, Cape Verde, Morocco, South Africa, Eswatini and Kenya.

CLAIM 11

Headline: Misleading! Mahama didn’t leave office with debt-to-GDP ratio at 56%, inflation at 15%, unemployment rate at 8%

Claim 1:  A Facebook user claims John Mahama, the NDC 2024 flagbearer, left office on January 6, 2017, when Ghana’s debt-to-GDP ratio was 56%. 

Source: With All Due Respect- Loud Silence Media on Facebook (Archived)

Verdict: False!

Explanation: Data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Ministry of Finance showed that Ghana’s debt-to-GDP ratio was above 72% in 2016 when Mahama exited office, not 57%, as claimed.  

CLAIM 12

Headline: False! NDC’s Prof Opoku-Agyemang did not advocate for some SHSs to be reserved for the privileged

Claim: Viral TikTok post claims Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has said that schools like Prempeh and Presec should not be part of the Free SHS policy. 

Source: nartpee69, TikTok, also seen on Facebook and threads. (Archived here, here & here).

Verdict: False

Explanation: The claim is attributed to Kumasi-based Kapital Radio and features the station’s name, logo and news card design. However, when the team went through the organisation’s social media handles, we did not find the particular artwork there.  

Fig 1: Claim as seen on TikTok

The Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition also ran a keyword and reverse images search and found that no major media house reported this claim. The National Democratic Party’s Vice Presidential aspirant has also debunked the post on her official Facebook page. 

Fig 2: Screenshot of Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang’s rebuttal

This report is part of the work of the Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition’s Election 2024 coverage.