Demand for bribes by public officials increased sharply to 18% in late 2025 — GSS Survey
Requests for unofficial payments by public officials rose significantly in the second half of 2025, with nearly seven out of every 10 Ghanaians who encountered bribery reporting that they were asked to make extra payments to access public services, according to new governance data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
The survey also found that the proportion of citizens who admitted paying bribes increased from 14.3 per cent in the first half of 2025 to 18 per cent in the second half, indicating that about one in every six Ghanaians paid a bribe to a public official during the period.
Presenting the findings at a Governance Series event organised by Three Reports and the GSS on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu said governance conditions deteriorated during the final six months of 2025, despite the country's overall performance improving compared with 2024.
“The most recent six months, which is July to December 2025, got harder compared to the previous six months, which is January to June 2025,” he said.
“Over the last six months of 2025, the share who paid a bribe rose from 14.3% in the first half of 2025 to 18% in the second half of 2025. That is about one in six paid a bribe to a public official.”
According to Dr Iddrisu, the increase was even more pronounced in the number of citizens who said public officials demanded unofficial payments, with the figure rising from 51 per cent in the first half of the year to 69 per cent between July and December.
“So the pressure sits at the counter. The problem now is less what citizens offer and more of what officials would ask,” he stated.
Despite the worsening situation in the latter half of 2025, Dr Iddrisu said the annual data still reflected an improvement compared with 2024.
“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.
He noted that the Governance Survey follows the same nationally representative households across all 16 regions, enabling the Ghana Statistical Service to accurately monitor changes in governance indicators over time rather than attributing differences to changes in survey samples.
The findings are based on interviews conducted with household heads during the first quarter of 2026 and capture citizens' experiences in accessing public services between July and December 2025.