More than half of Ghana’s current Members of Parliament have failed to declare their assets and liabilities, placing them in breach of a key anti-corruption law. An analysis of data obtained from the Audit Service by The Fourth Estate — verified twice through a Right to Information request — shows that 151 out of 276 MPs, roughly 55 percent, had not met the mandatory asset declaration requirement as of December 2025. The requirement exists to ensure that public officeholders do not exploit their positions for personal gain.
The defaulters cut across party lines, though the ruling National Democratic Congress accounts for the larger share. Eighty-one of the non-compliant lawmakers, about 54 percent of the defaulters, belong to the NDC, while 68, representing 45 percent, are from the opposition New Patriotic Party. Two independent MPs have also failed to comply.
Non-compliance is most pronounced among newer legislators. Eighty-seven of the defaulters, or 58 percent, are serving their first term in Parliament. The remainder includes 38 second-term MPs, 13 in their third term, 11 in their fourth, and one each in their fifth, sixth, and eighth terms. Among the more experienced lawmakers who have still not declared are Dominic Nitiwul, the immediate past Defence Minister and MP for Bimbilla, who is in his sixth term, and Collins Dauda, the veteran MP for Asutifi South, who is serving his eighth.
The problem reaches into parliamentary leadership itself. Five House leaders are among the defaulters. On the NDC side, Deputy Majority Leader Kweku Ricketts-Hagan and Majority Chief Whip Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor have not complied. On the NPP side, Deputy Minority Leader Patricia Appiagyei, First Deputy Minority Chief Whip Habib Iddrisu, and Second Deputy Minority Chief Whip Jerry Ahmed Shaib are also in default.
This is not the first time the issue has come to light. In 2022, The Fourth Estate reported that 180 MPs had failed to declare their assets, and some leaders moved to comply shortly after, among them then-Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin and then-Deputy Minority Leader Dr. James Klutse Avedzi. The problem, however, predates that intervention by years. In the Seventh and Eighth Parliaments, spanning 2017 to 2021, compliance was nearly non-existent: only 20 MPs made full declarations, a compliance rate of just 7.2 percent, while 129 made no declaration at all and a further 126 submitted only partial ones.
