Why this matters
I grew up in Tarkwa. Gold leaves that ground every single day, yet the roads, classrooms, and clinics never quite caught up. Maybe your town feels the same.
Here’s the deal; I mean the background. Article 252 of the Constitution says not less than 5% of Ghana’s total revenue must go into the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) every year. It’s the main pot of development money for our 261 Assemblies: roads, schools, clinics.
What made me dig?
On September 30, Local Government Minister Mahama Ayariga announced plans to hand city streets to banks and private firms to rebuild and maintain. His Inner-City Big Push then asked homeowners to share the cost of neighbourhood roads and drains. The reaction? “So what are our taxes for local government projects for?” Fair question, and it points straight to the DACF.
Meanwhile, Prof. Azar, never shy with a “GoGo”, was celebrating the DACF being paid on time and in full, and the Finance Minister said the same in October. Good news, IF IT HOLDS. But what should interest you is the trend since 2021. Hmmm!! Y’akyi agu h) aky3. So I checked the Finance Ministry’s fiscal data against the Auditor-General’s DACF reports for 2021 to 2025.
Don’t get confused: the chop money test
Stay with me on this analogy. Think of it like chop money. The law says Dad must give at least GH¢1,000 (the at least 5%). He announces about GH¢600 (the RELEASED amount). By month-end, Mum has about GH¢340 (the RECEIVED amount). Maybe GH¢3 of it gets misused.
The big problem isn’t the GH¢3. It’s the GH¢660 that never came. You get it? If you don’t get it… lol. Those are the real 2021 to 2025 proportions, scaled down to a household.
What I found
1. Released is not received. In Ghana’s case, a “release” is a letter. A mere PROMISE to pay. In 2024, the tables show GH¢5.86 billion released. By the end of 2025, only GH¢0.25 billion had reached the DACF office. About 4%. The 2023 money arrived a full year late. The DACF Administrator himself calls the shortfall the biggest issue: the money comes “maybe May, maybe June, maybe July.”
And look at this. The former Local Government Minister said Assemblies got GH¢5 billion in 2025. But that includes GH¢1.59 billion from a fourth-quarter letter dated 31 December which, per the Auditor-General, hadn’t arrived by year-end. Then in October 2026, Hon. Ayariga announced GH¢9.1 billion covering six quarters; the Assemblies “should be receiving them very soon.” Released. Not yet received.
2. THE 5% gets cut before any money moves. The DACF budget has been only 62% to 70% of that floor (of not less than 5%). It isn’t a forecasting problem: revenue came in below forecast in four of the five years. Benjamin Kpodo, the MP who won the 2019 case, says mineral royalties and some oil items are still left out of the base. Even the DACF’s own report to Parliament says it was owed GH¢7.33 billion for 2024 and asks for the “capping” to stop. Oil money tells the SAME story: 1.74% of the oil share in 2021, 2.39% in 2022, and just 0.43% in 2025.
3. The DACF office isn’t the DISTRICT. Until 2024, all 261 Assemblies together got only GH¢260 million to GH¢390 million a year in direct cash. Tarkwa-Nsuaem got about GH¢603,000 in 2021, after 40% to 48% was deducted at source. In nine months of 2025, it got GH¢11.4 million. That’s REAL PROGRESS. When the money does arrive, it mostly builds classrooms (37% of audited projects), clinics (15%), and, hmm, Assembly offices and staff housing (15%).
4. Delays stall projects. In 2024, the Auditor-General flagged GH¢130 million in delayed or abandoned projects. An International Growth Centre study of 257 Assemblies found they received only about 37% of the DACF they had budgeted, and CDD-Ghana puts typical delays at two to four months.
5. Misuse is real, but it’s small. Flagged amounts ran at GH¢50 million to GH¢125 million a year, rising to GH¢220 million in 2024, mostly stalled projects. Cash irregularities, meaning unsupported, misapplied, or misappropriated payments, come to about 0.5% to 1% of the cash the DACF office receives, NOT THE DISTRICTS. Flagged means ‘questionable’, not stolen. The one clear case: GH¢11.1 million the Finance Ministry swept from a DACF grant account in 2025. The Minority’s GH¢1.4 billion claim is, for now, an allegation.
Credit where it’s due, and the catch
Look, now, since 2025, 80% goes straight to the Assemblies, says the Prez, and Ayariga says it’s actually about 88%. Deductions at source fell to about 2.5%. But no wahala, here’s the catch: it doesn’t close the released vs received gap. And accountability lags way behind. The 2025 audit was only signed in June 2026, so problems repeat before anyone acts. A serious policy lag.
My two cents: ENFORCE the LAW
The DACF Administrator wants release dates backed by law. A welcome call. But if government can’t keep to ‘at least 5%’, delivery and accountability become a FIASCO. So give the dates teeth. None of it needs new money.
Pay at the source, like Brazil does every ten days. This deals with delays. Fix the dates in law, as South Africa does, and make the Ministry pay interest on late payments. And publish a monthly table of what is due by Law, what was received, and what was paid to each Assembly. Nigeria’s Supreme Court ordered direct payment in 2024 for exactly this reason.
And before homeowners co-fund their own roads, the 5% that’s already owed should be budgeted, released, and received. On time.
So, released or received?
A release is a letter. Received? Available funds. So the next time someone pitches private streets or homeowner contributions, pause and ponder. And when a “GoGo” goes up over a DACF release, celebrate if you want. Then ask: did the cash arrive, did it reach my district, and is it the statutory amount to fix my road? For Tarkwa, and towns like it, that’s the whole story.