Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has rejected claims by the Minority in Parliament that more than GH¢16 million cannot be traced in the evacuation of 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa. Speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile programme on Saturday, October 17, 2026, the Minister said no money is missing from the exercise, which ran between May 27 and September 4, 2026, following xenophobic attacks in South Africa, according to Graphic Online.
"I can state unequivocally, without any scintilla of doubt, that not a cedi, not a pesewa is missing," Mr Ablakwa said during the interview.
The Minority had alleged that GH¢16.4 million was unaccounted for in the operation. The Minister's response came as he laid out a detailed breakdown of the total cost and how it was spent.
Why it matters
The dispute touches on public trust in how the state handles emergency spending. Evacuating nearly 2,000 citizens from a volatile situation abroad is a sensitive operation, and any suggestion that funds went astray attracts close public attention. With a formal audit now in view, the exchange between the Ministry and the Minority will shape how the evacuation is judged.
Minister details allowances and flight costs
Mr Ablakwa said that on the instructions of President John Dramani Mahama, each evacuee, including children, received GH¢5,000 as a reintegration allowance and GH¢500 for transport, a total of GH¢5,500 per person. He said the payments were made openly at the Accra International Airport on arrival, with the media present, and that some evacuees counted their money on the spot.
To back his account, the Minister said he has compiled a 177-page PowerPoint presentation of sign-off sheets. These contain the names, dates of birth, passport numbers, phone numbers and inked signatures of all 1,964 beneficiaries, he said.
According to his breakdown, the evacuation cost GH¢49,721,786 in total. The government contributed GH¢33,721,786, while Engineers and Planners, a company owned by businessman Ibrahim Mahama, donated GH¢16 million. Of the total, GH¢10,802,000 went to allowances, calculated as 1,964 people multiplied by GH¢5,500. A further GH¢84,274 covered the repatriation of two mortal remains and autopsy costs, with the remainder spent on flights, medical care and hospitalisation for evacuees who fell ill.
The Minister said 956 evacuees travelled on chartered flights and 1,008 on commercial flights, at a cost of GH¢38,835,512. The commercial carriers were Ethiopian Airlines with 260 passengers, Air Tanzania with 598, Asky with 130 and Egypt Air with 20.
He said the Ministry holds receipts from all the airlines, along with boarding passes and flight manifests, to support the figures. "If you can't count manually, how about checking the receipt, the ticket, the boarding passes? The flight manifest has the full 1,964 names," he said.
Minister questions Minority statement
Mr Ablakwa described the Minority's press statement as containing fabrications and inconsistencies, and pointed to several places where he said its own numbers did not add up. He said paragraph 19 of the statement put the unaccounted amount at GH¢16,423,470.00, while paragraph 22 gave GH¢16,302,586.00, a difference of more than GH¢120,000.
He also said the Minority claimed at paragraphs 9 and 10 that only 824 evacuees received allowances, yet at paragraph 15 the same statement said 1,508 people signed for the GH¢5,000 reintegration package and 1,001 signed for the GH¢500 transport allowance.
A further discrepancy, he said, was the claim that only 247 Ghanaians were evacuated on commercial flights, even though the Minority counted 442 minors from those flights. "You claim there are only 247 on commercial flights and yet you count 442 children. More than the total number. Their argument collapses like a pack of cards," he said.
For comparison, the Minister said Ministry records show the COVID-19 evacuation in 2020 cost taxpayers GH¢96.97 million, even though most evacuees paid for their own tickets, quarantine and tests, with support given to only a few vulnerable people. He said GH¢44 million of that went on quarantine alone, and there were no reintegration or transport allowances and no medical bills covered. He added that he respects his predecessors and was not accusing anyone of theft, saying the audit would settle the matter.
Minority says it has made no accusation
The Ranking Member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Abu Jinapor, said the Minority Caucus on Foreign Affairs has not accused the Minister of any wrongdoing. "I am on record to have said we have not accused the minister of wrongdoing. I am on record to have said that we are not even suggesting that some misappropriation or embezzlement or whatever is taking place. We simply say that there are some discrepancies and some amounts it seems not to have been accounted for," he said.
Mr Jinapor said the Minority was carrying out its oversight role over the Ministry. In his view, a formal audit would resolve the matter, and while the Minister's presentation was useful, it does not close the issue. He said he would not judge the discrepancies the Minister flagged in paragraphs 9 and 15 of the statement, as he had not examined those sections closely, and he declined to adopt the description of the Minority's analysis as "voodoo."
The figures at the centre of the dispute cover an operation that brought home people caught up in xenophobic violence in South Africa. The Minister's presentation sought to show that every beneficiary was documented and every cost matched to a receipt or record. The Minority's position is that questions remain over parts of the accounting.
What happens next rests on the proposed audit. Its findings will determine whether the matter is laid to rest or returns to Parliament for further scrutiny.
