Source: Dr Sammy Ayeh
Verdict: 2 Mixture, 1 False
Researched by Gifty Danso
A presidential aide, Dr Sammy Ayeh, in an interview with Kumasi-based Nhyira FM on November 5, 2025, made claims about economic performance by the erstwhile Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, comparing same to that of the current government of President John Dramani Mahama.
In this report, GhanaFact will verify three claims Dr. Ayeh made about the economic performance of the two administrations.
Claim 1
“When we came, when you wanted to take a loan from the bank, the policy rate was 28%. Since we came to office, it has now gone down to as low as 21.5% (Between 18:17 to 18:31).
Fact-check
The policy rate is the mechanism used by the Central Bank of Ghana to control money supply, interest rate, and credit availability. It is also the rate at which the Central Bank lends to commercial banks for short-term borrowing.
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According to the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) Monetary Policy reports for November 2024 and January 2025, the policy rate was maintained at 27% for both months.
“Under the circumstances, the Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 27.0 percent,” the BoG said in its report released in January 2025.
This means that before the previous administration left office on January 7, 2025, the policy rate stood at 27%, and not 28% as claimed.
The most recent Monetary Policy report released by the BoG in September 2025 indicated that the policy rate was lowered by 350 basis points to 21.5% (see page 42 of the report).
Verdict
Therefore, the claim is rated a mixture.
Claim 2
“Since we came, Debt-to-GDP ratio, we’re doing about 44.9% of GDP ratio. At one point, if you remember, it reached 105%.” (from 19:17 to 19:28).
Fact-check
According to the latest BoG report on the Summary of Economic and Financial data, the Debt-to-GDP ratio as of July 2025 stands at 44.9%.
Did the Debt-to-GDP ratio ever reach 105% under the previous administration?
GhanaFact’s review of the Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data reports since 2017 shows that the highest percentage of Debt-to-GDP recorded was 93.5% in November 2022. The Debt-to-GDP ratio never reached 105% under the previous administration.
Verdict
Therefore, the claim is a mixture of true and false statements.
Claim 3
“There’s one conclusion that you can use to determine that the NDC government has done well. When you look at what they call the primary balance or the import cover, when we came, the import cover was two weeks.
“It means that for Ghanaian importers who use the dollar to trade, when the government makes available the dollar for imports, by two weeks, those reserves would be finished under NPP. But today, our reserves have reached four months. And so today, when Ghanaian importers need forex to trade, the government can make provisions for up to four months,” (from 25:17 to 26:04).
Did the NDC administration inherit only two weeks of import cover?
Fact-check
The import cover refers to the number of months a country can continue to import goods and services based on its current level of foreign exchange reserves. This is determined by the value of the Gross International Reserves, which is the total foreign currency assets, monetary gold, and other reserve assets held by a country’s Central Bank.
The Bank of Ghana’s 2024 annual report, released in January 2025, pegs Ghana’s Gross International Reserves at $8.98 billion, equivalent to four months of import cover.
The 2025 budget, read by Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson in March, also corroborates the import cover data that the current government inherited.
“Mr Speaker, Gross International Reserves (GIR) increased to a stock position of US$8.98 billion at the end of 2024 and was enough to cover 4 months of imports, exceeding the target floor of 3 months of imports cover,” (see page 27 of the Budget Speech).
It is therefore inaccurate that Ghana had only two weeks of import cover when the new administration took office.
Verdict
The claim is false!
