Member of Parliament for the Tano Constituency, Dr. Gideon Boako, has strongly refuted claims made by President John Dramani Mahama regarding the balance in Ghana’s Sinking Fund.
In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in his second term on Thursday, February 27, 2025, President Mahama disclosed that the fund contained only $64,000 and GHS143,000, contradicting previous assertions by the Akufo-Addo administration that substantial financial buffers had been left for debt repayment.
The revelation has raised concerns about the country’s ability to meet its debt obligations amid economic challenges.
In a Facebook post on the same day, Dr. Boako dismissed President Mahama’s claims, describing them as misleading.
He accused the government of selectively using figures from August 2024, when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration last made payments to domestic bondholders, rather than the actual balances as of January 6, 2025.
According to Dr. Boako, significant funds had been accumulated in the Sinking Fund between August 2024 and January 2025, which the president failed to acknowledge.
Dr. Boako further insisted that the government should publish evidence of the balances in the Sinking Fund to end what he described as “peddling falsehoods.” He reiterated his earlier challenge, first issued on February 19, urging the government to disclose accurate financial records.
The lawmaker asserted that on January 3, 2025, there was an auction excess of over GHS700 million in the fund, alongside an additional GHS3 billion in end-of-year revenue left as a buffer. These, he argued, provided sufficient financial backing that the president deliberately ignored.
Concluding his statement, Dr. Boako called for transparency in governance, urging the administration to prioritize truth over political rhetoric.
He maintained that while additional revenues may have been generated by the new government, the claim that no significant buffers were left behind by the previous administration was inaccurate.
“Nothing stops the government from publishing evidence of the balances in the Sinking Fund accounts,” he stated, adding that governance should be based on facts rather than what he termed as “petty lies.”
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