A new report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that nearly seven out of every 10 Ghanaians who interacted with public officials during the second half of 2025 were asked to make unofficial payments to access services they were legally entitled to receive.
The findings, contained in the Governance Series Wave 3 Report launched in Accra, highlight persistent corruption within public institutions despite signs of gradual improvement in overall bribery trends.
Presenting the report, Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu said 69 percent of citizens who dealt with public officials between July and December 2025 were asked to pay extra for services that should have been provided without additional charges.
“Out of every hundred Ghanaians who walked up to a public official in the last six months of 2025, 69 were asked to pay something extra for a service they had already earned, a right that was already theirs,” he said.
The report, which covers all 16 regions, tracked citizens’ experiences with public institutions using data collected from a nationally representative panel based on the 2021 Population and Housing Census.
According to the findings, the proportion of people who admitted paying bribes increased from 14.3 percent in the first half of 2025 to 18 percent during the second half of the year.
Similarly, requests for unofficial payments rose sharply from 51 percent to 69 percent over the same period.
“The pressure sits at the counter. The problem now is less what citizens offer and more what officials ask,” Dr Iddrisu observed.
Despite the rise in demands for bribes, the report also highlighted encouraging trends.
The percentage of respondents who said they paid bribes five or more times dropped significantly from 24 percent in the previous survey to less than four percent, while those who refused to pay unofficial charges increased from three percent to 4.9 percent.
On a year-on-year basis, the report showed signs of improvement.
Although interactions between citizens and public officials increased from 56 percent in 2024 to 72 percent in 2025, the proportion of people who actually paid bribes declined from 18.4 percent to 16.8 percent.
High-value bribe payments exceeding GH¢1,000 also fell from 14.7 percent to 7.6 percent.
“Exposure went up; bribery went down. That gap is the good news,” Dr Iddrisu said.
The survey identified the Ghana Police Service, particularly the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), as the public institution most frequently linked to bribery.
More than half of respondents who interacted with MTTD officers reported making unofficial payments or giving gifts, although the rate declined from 61 percent in 2024 to 53.6 percent in 2025.
The report also found improvements in citizen participation, with fewer Ghanaians saying they had no influence over decisions affecting their lives. However, young people, older persons and the unemployed continued to feel excluded from governance.
To address the challenges, the GSS recommended expanding digital public services, publishing official service fees, strengthening whistleblower protections, improving complaint mechanisms and increasing transparency in public administration.
The report was produced in partnership with the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Transparency International Ghana and the PAIRed Programme, with support from the Hewlett Foundation.
