NPP failed to account for Ukraine evacuation, now demanding details on SA cost – Kwame Anthony

Press Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior and member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) national communications team, Julius Kwame Anthony, has accused the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration of failing to provide a detailed account of expenditure incurred during the evacuation of Ghanaians from Ukraine.

He made the claim while responding to the Minority’s demand for detailed procurement and payment records covering the government’s GH¢49.72 million expenditure on the evacuation and reintegration of Ghanaians from South Africa.

The Minority, through Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, has argued that the emergency nature of the exercise does not exempt the government from maintaining proper procurement and payment records.

Speaking in an interview on Accra-based 3FM on Friday, September 11, Kwame Anthony, who previously served as General Secretary for the National Union of Ghana Students, said he was directly involved in the evacuation of Ghanaians from Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country.

He said the evacuation involved collaboration between the ministry and NUGS, but claimed he did not see the level of detailed public accounting that has accompanied the recent South Africa evacuation.

“Again, what I did not see at the end of that evacuation process was a detailed accounting in the way and manner the Honourable Okudzeto Ablakwa has done,” he said.

He also said he had personally witnessed instances where the then Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, provided financial support to some Ghanaian students during the Ukraine evacuation.

Kwame Anthony further defended Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa’s disclosure of the GH¢49.72 million cost of the South Africa evacuation, saying the figures had already been broken down into major expenditure areas.

The government evacuated 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa between May 27 and September 4, 2026, following renewed xenophobic attacks and threats against African nationals.

Ablakwa disclosed that GH¢38.84 million was spent on chartered flights, tickets, ground transportation, feeding, accommodation and medical care, while GH¢10.802 million went into reintegration and transport allowances.

A further GH¢84,274 was spent on repatriating the remains of two Ghanaians who died during the crisis.