A new governance report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that public officials demanded unofficial payments in nearly seven out of every 10 bribery situations during the second half of 2025, signalling growing corruption pressures despite improvements in Ghana’s overall governance performance.
The findings, contained in the latest Governance Series report, show that while the country’s governance indicators improved compared to 2024, citizens experienced higher levels of bribery between July and December 2025.
Presenting the report at a Governance Series event organised by Three Reports and the GSS on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu said demands for unofficial payments by public officials increased significantly during the period.
According to the report, the proportion of citizens who said public officials requested extra payments rose from 51 per cent in the first half of 2025 to 69 per cent in the second half.
“So the pressure sits at the counter. The problem now is less what citizens offer and more of what officials would ask,” Dr Iddrisu said.
The survey also found that the share of Ghanaians who paid a bribe to access a public service increased from 14.3 per cent in the first half of 2025 to 18 per cent in the second half, meaning nearly one in six citizens paid a bribe during the period.
Despite the increase in bribery experiences, Dr Iddrisu said Ghana’s overall governance performance for 2025 showed improvement compared to the previous year.
“The full year, which is 2025, got better compared to 2024. Both of these stories are true, and that’s the beauty of the six-monthly survey that we do, to be able to look at trends within waves and even compare between years.”
He explained that the Governance Series tracks the same nationally representative households across all 16 regions, allowing the GSS to measure genuine changes in citizens’ experiences over time rather than variations caused by different survey samples.
The latest report is based on interviews conducted with household heads during the first quarter of 2026, capturing their experiences with governance and public services between July and December 2025.
