Claim: Ghana’s rate of debt accumulation was lower under the 8 years of former President Akufo-Addo than under Mahama’s first term
Source: Andrew Egyapa Mercer (former MP and Minister)
Verdict: True
Researched by Gifty Danso
The former Member of Parliament for the Sekondi Constituency, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, claimed that under the eight-year tenure of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (2016 – 2024), Ghana’s debt, in percentage accumulation terms, was lower than under President Mahama’s first term in office (2012 – 2016).
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme on October 7, 2025, while comparing the performance of the two administrations, he said:
“This debt issue, so are they suggesting that since Mr Mahama came in January 2025, Ghana’s debt has been paid off? The debt component at every point is a function of the exchange rate, so without even borrowing, if your currency depreciates, your debt as a function increases…
RelatedNews
“The rate of debt accumulation is there. That really is what you use to measure whether the government is borrowing additional or not. In the 8 years of Akufo-Addo, the debt accumulation was lower than what you did in your tenure under Mr. Mahama 1,” he added (between 1:38:59 to 1:39:52 of the show, archived here).
Was Ghana’s rate of debt accumulation lower under Akufo-Addo’s eight years compared to the first four-year term of President John Mahama? This fact-check will verify the claim.
Fact-check
Debt accumulation and the rate of debt accumulation
Debt accumulation refers to an increase in a country’s debt (either domestic or external borrowing), which can sometimes increase a country’s vulnerability to economic shocks and financial crises. Both the domestic and external debt components make up a country’s total debt.
The rate of debt accumulation measures the level at which new debt is added to the existing debt stock.
To fact-check this claim, GhanaFact relied on the National Budgets and the Annual Public Debt reports produced by the Ministry of Finance for years under Mahama’s first term (2013-2016) and that of the eight-year tenure of Akufo-Addo (2017-2024).
The breakdown of data is as follows: Under Mahama’s first tenure, Ghana’s total public debt had moved from GH₵53,081,270 in 2013 to GH₵122,165,460 in 2016. With respect to the rate of debt accumulation, the 2018 budget indicates that it had been between 47.45% in 2013 to 21.98% by 2016 (see page 30 of budget document).
From the above the average rate of the debt accumulation under president Mahama’s first term comes to 36.33%, after adding the yearly rates and finding the average.
Former president Nana Akufo-Addo
To specifically check for the measure of debt accumulation under former President Akufo-Addo, GhanaFact relied on the Annual Public Debt reports from 2017 to 2024. Under Akufo-Addo’s tenure, Ghana’s total public debt had moved from GH₵142,546,630 in 2017 to GH₵737,172,530 in 2024.
What was the debt accumulation rate over the eight-year period?
Analysing data from the Annual Public Debts reports from 2017 to 2024, GhanaFact found that the rate of debt accumulation had stayed between 16.6% in 2017 to 19.1% in 2024.
| Years (2017-2024) | Rate of debt accumulation |
| 2017 | 16.6% (page 16) |
| 2018 | 21.2% (page 28) |
| 2019 | 26.1% (page 13) |
| 2020 | 34.4% (page 13) |
| 2021 | 15% (page 45 ) |
| 2022 | 23.6% (page 16) |
| 2023 | 36.2% (page 21) |
| 2024 | 19.1% (page 11) |
We found that the average rate of total debt accumulation (adding the annual rates and dividing by 8) under the Akufo-Addo tenure is 24.03%.
4 years vs. 8 years: Is it sound to compare rate of debt accumulation across different time frames?
We asked Juliet Ahiagbede, a Chartered Accountant and Tax Practitioner, who told our team that the comparison between a four-year tenure and an eight-year tenure is problematic.
“You compare likes to likes. So, you are either comparing 4 years of Mahama’s term with the first 4 years of Akufo-Addo’s term. The discretion lies in whether you are using the first 4 years or the second 4 years. You cannot compare 4 to 8 and expect to make a sound comparison,” she said.
Given the explanation, GhanaFact subjected the claim to further scrutiny by calculating separately the average rate of debt accumulation in the two four-year tenures of Nana Akufo-Addo, against Mahama’s first term.
We found the following;
- The average rate of debt accumulation during the first four years of Akufo-Addo’s presidency (2017-2020) was 24.58%.
- The average rate of debt accumulation during Akufo-Addo’s second term (2021-2024) decreased to 23.48%.
- The average rate of debt accumulation in the first four years of John Mahama came to 36.33%.
Verdict
The claim is rated true. Mahama 1.0 saw a higher rate of debt accumulation when compared to Akufo-Addo 1.0 or Akufo-Addo 2.0.
