A recent survey by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicates that one in six Ghanaians who sought the services of public officials in 2024 paid bribes to get access to services.
According to the survey, which is a part of the Governance Series Wave 1, while 55.7% of Ghanaians engaged with public officials in 2024, nearly one in six (18.4%) acknowledged exchanging presents for services.
7,248 participants across all 16 regi ons of Ghana were surveyed for the study Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI).
The study supports Ghana’s efforts to track progress on SDG Indicator 16.5.1, which measures bribery in public institutions.
The report also discovered significant differences in bribery trends with respect to gender, location, job status, and disability.
The percentage of men who paid bribes was a startling 77.4%, whereas the percentage for women was 22.6%.
Bribery was significantly more common among urban residents, towns and cities accounted for 61.9% of bribery incidents and rural areas accounted for 38.1%.
According to the research, which highlights the persistence of corruption on public service delivery, men are more likely than women to participate in institutional interactions and use illegal payments to gain access to services.
The chart below indicates that money accounts for 85.2% of all presents given to public officials, making it the most popular item given to them aside from official fees.
This is distantly followed by 9.0% for Food, beverages, or animals; 4.4% for Exchange services; and 1.4% for Valuables.
This demonstrates that the most common unofficial payment method in exchange of public service is cash bribery.
The Greater Accra and Ashanti regions recorded the highest levels of bribery, while the Savannah and North East regions had the lowest.
The report additionally highlighted that vulnerable groups—especially persons with physical and visual impairments—were more likely to experience bribery, raising concerns about equity in access to public services.
