The Deputy Minister for Education, Dr. Clement Apaak, has pushed back strongly against accusations from the Minority in Parliament that the Mahama administration inflated the cost of sanitary pads in its budgetary allocation, insisting that the scandal being suggested is entirely fabricated.
The renewed debate emerged from discussions on the 2026 budget after the Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo Hon. Vincent Ekow Assafuah questioned the allocation for sanitary pads and claimed that government figures showed clear signs of cost inflation.
During the budget debate, the Old Tafo MP argued that the allocation of 292 million Ghana cedis for what he claimed to be 6.6 million packs of sanitary pads did not reflect market realities.
His comments sparked immediate public scrutiny and revived opposition attempts to attribute impropriety to the Mahama-led administration. The MP insisted that the numbers implied the government was purchasing each pack at an inflated value that raised legitimate concerns.
But the Deputy Education Minister, Dr. Apaak dismissed the claims as an orchestrated attempt to stain the image of President John Dramani Mahama. He argued that the Minority had misrepresented both the figures and the intent behind the allocation.
In a meeting with journalists, he said the calculations being circulated were politically motivated and inconsistent with the facts – as he described the accusations by Hon. Assafuah as a deliberate attempt to conjure a scandal where none exists.
“For the Honourable Member of Parliament to disingenuously perform what the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has described as chop bar arithmetic, we can only conclude that it is yet another desperate attempt to try and impute the existence of a scandal to the John Dramani Mahama-led government so that the decomposing elephant can seek to equalise.
“There is no scandal. There will never be a scandal”
Dr. Clement Apaak, Deputy Education Minister
Government’s Clarification
Dr. Apaak explained that the Minority’s claims rested on a distorted understanding of the numbers. He underscored that the Ministry of Education never procured sanitary pads at GHS 45 per pack and emphasised that the price range for the first batch was well within acceptable limits.
He outlined the procurement structure, noting that the allocation approved in the 2025 budget covered 12,208,340 packs divided into two batches. The first consisted of 6,607,095 packs, each containing twelve pieces, while the second amounted to 5,601,245 packs still under distribution.
“Ladies and gentlemen, at no point at no time did the Ministry procure sanitary pads at 45 Ghana Cedis per pack. In fact, the range is between 19 GHS and 24 GHS for the first batch, which has been distributed”
Dr. Clement Apaak, Deputy Education Minister
According to him, the price variation for the first batch was influenced by transportation and distribution, depending on the distance from the point of production.
To reinforce the point, the Deputy Minister highlighted the additional logistics included in suppliers’ quotations accounting for the range, and insisted that the Ministry’s processes remained transparent, accountable, and consistent with value-for-money assurances made to the public.
Earlier, Education Minister Hon. Haruna Iddrisu also rejected Hon. Assafuah’s interpretation of the figures. He argued that the MP’s calculations ignored the full scope of the allocation and failed to recognise that over 12 million packs were approved, not only the 6.6 million that had already been distributed.
Dr. Apaak maintained that the government had already distributed 3.9 million packs to students across 20,744 public basic schools of the second batch and that the figures being circulated were designed to misinform rather than enlighten.
He insisted that the attack was not grounded in genuine concern for public accountability but was instead engineered to dent the credibility of President Mahama’s administration. “The NDC, under John Dramani Mahama, the Ministry of Education, has not procured a pack of sanitary pads at GHS 45 and will never do so,” Dr. Apaak assured.
He warned that persistent distortions only undermine public understanding and weaken confidence in legitimate policy initiatives. As government continues the distribution of the remaining 5.6 million packs, he urged the public to rely on verifiable information rather than political conjecture.
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