Less than 500,000 people stealing twice what all Ghanaians borrow to survive – Kofi Bentil

Anti-corruption campaigner and Senior Vice President of think tank Imani Centre for Policy and Education (Imani Africa), Kofi Bentil, has bemoaned the wanton dissipation of Ghana’s resources through corruption and corruption-related activities.

Mr. Bentil accused a fraction of the population—including the political elite and their appointees—of impoverishing the rest of the population by their acts of corruption, which deprive the country of twice what it borrows for developmental purposes.

Mr. Bentil, a longstanding anti-corruption campaigner and activist, made this point on Multimedia’s Newsfile programme on Saturday, February 4, 2023.

"We steal and waste in this country more than twice what we borrow [in the name of development].

There are fewer than 500,000 people leading this country out of the 30 million. And those 500,000—that’s the ministries and whatever it is. They steal and waste more than twice what the 30 million of us borrow to survive," he noted.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over the reins of power mainly on a promise to rid the country of corruption. But it has consistently performed poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI). A score of 100 means the country in question is highly clean or not corrupt, while a score of 0 means the country is highly corrupt or corruption is rampant in the public sector.

The Akufo-Addo-led administration has scored 43, its highest score since 2017. This compares unfavorably with the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC), which recorded 43 as its lowest in 2016.

In 2013, Ghana scored 46.00%; 48.00% in 2014; 47.00% in 2015; 43.00% in 2016; 40.00% in 2017; 41.00% in 2018; 41.00% in 2019; 43.00% in 2020; 43.00% in 2021; and 43.00% in 2022. Corruption remains pervasive in the country.